


If You Feed Them Once

by UntenableFutureGoals



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Minor Poe Dameron/Finn, Omega Verse, Pregnancy, Romantic Fluff, Scent Marking, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-03-08 03:22:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 30,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18886168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UntenableFutureGoals/pseuds/UntenableFutureGoals
Summary: Mostly what Rey learned about alphas, omegas, and betas was from watching other people, how they interacted with one another. It wasn't like there wasn't love or family on Jakku—there was, certainly—but not among lone scavvers, and not for orphans. The joke—which Rey overheard on multiple occasions—was "if you feed them once, they'll try to stay forever", which the speakers usually meant to say "I don't want to help you even once because you'll keep coming back".Jakku was a rough place.And then luck landed on Jakku and Rey finally found friends, a mentor, and the most amazing scent she'd ever encountered.





	1. Jakku was a rough place

Rey never had a lot of education about alphas, omegas, and betas growing up, mostly because she didn't really have a family. Being a scavenger or 'scavver' meant that no one really wanted to get close enough to her to teach her anything. It wasn't anything against Rey personally—no one on Jakku got close to anyone else. Occasionally someone would help her out by answering one of her questions, but it was with the caveat that it would be a one-time occurrence and that Rey should not expect further help.

So mostly what Rey learned about alphas, omegas and betas was from watching other people, how they interacted with one another. It wasn't like there wasn't love or family on Jakku—there was, certainly—but not among lone scavvers, and not for orphans. The joke—which Rey overheard on multiple occasions—was "if you feed them once, they'll try to stay forever", which the speakers usually meant to say "I don't want to help you even once because you'll keep coming back".

Jakku was a rough place.

Rey didn't get to ask a lot of questions about it but she had a naturally curious and inquisitive nature, and even if she didn't have anyone to ask the questions to, she would at least think of them in her head. This tendency also helped her figure out what a lot of parts were that she could use to feed herself. When it came to approaching other people, it didn't help much though so mostly she just kept her questions to herself and watched.

She saw how people who were 'omega' were treated, although she personally didn't see how they were different from anyone else. She saw how 'alphas' and 'betas' were treated. She saw how they started relationships with each other. So she had a basic idea. When she finally presented as alpha, a couple older scavvers gave her a few very terse pieces of advice, mostly amounting to "don't be rough or too aggressive or you'll scare the omega off", but other than that she had to just see how people reacted to her.

Being able to smell people was a new experience and at first all she wanted to do was smell _everything_ , but apparently that was something that people were sensitive to and would chase her off when they caught her sniffing nearby. She learned this was something people do when they're looking for a mate, so she learned to sniff surreptitiously and infrequently. As she got older, sniffing was still something she liked to do—she was pretty sure _everyone_ liked it—and she found that some people smelled a lot more interesting than others. Those particular people were usually ones she found pretty or attractive.

She finally understood the connection between scent and mate potential when she smelled an omega in heat for the first time. Fortunately, it's not something that often happens among the scavvers because starving people don't have the extra energy for that. It was also the first time she saw Jakkuans helping each other—some of the older omegas took the young one in heat away from the other scavvers to some safer place and threatened anyone trying to come near.

Even though the omega was gone the scent had _lingered_ , and it had caused a few fights to break out among the overly aggressive of the scavvers—which Rey hadn't understood at all, since the omega wasn't even _there_ to fight over. When the omega came back, she'd gotten a lot more looks, and a couple alphas had even tried to approach her, but Rey didn't blame that omega when she'd turned them down—they had mostly been the troublemakers starting the fights. It was the one and only time when Rey had ever intentionally gotten in a fight too, when the omega had tried to refuse an alpha but he wouldn't listen, so Rey had purposefully-on-accident bumped into him to draw his attention—and then had spent the next two days running away from him. Rey hadn't seen that omega again after that, and she hoped the girl had found a way to get off Jakku.

Eventually, she ran into Finn, who was one of those people that smelled good to her. She assumed it was because she saw him as a potential mate, but later when they ran into Han and Chewie, Rey found that she wasn't jealous of them being close to Finn. She finally realized that maybe this was what having friends was like and she liked that idea—she'd never had friends before. Apparently neither had Finn, so they fit right in together. Finn had her back and she had Finn's, and even Han and Chewie cared about them (although Han seemed to do so only in his own weird way that honestly reminded her of Jakku). Rey rather liked having friends like this.

Then they got to the Resistance base on D'Qar, and Rey found herself surrounded by potential friends everywhere. It was strange, Rey wasn't used to being around lots of people who cared about her. Finn was injured, and the pilot Poe Dameron seemed so distraught over her friend's health that Rey instantly found herself liking the Resistance pilot. He wasn't someone that she was particularly interested in as a mate, but Poe seemed to see Finn that way, judging by how he wanted to sit by Finn's bedside all the time in medical. Rey felt protective of Finn but not jealous, so she felt no qualms about telling Poe to watch over Finn for her while she went off to find Luke Skywalker.

On base Rey had noticed the varying scents of people the way she had on Jakku, and sometimes people would smell good and others less so. Every so often though, she would catch the faintest whiff of something that smelled _amazing_. She was never able to really pin it down—hell, she couldn't even guarantee that the scent had come from a person and wasn't a piece of food or perfume or something. She kept alert, but didn't really have a lot of time to go around looking, and honestly a couple whiffs wasn't exactly a good lead to follow.

Soon enough, she went on her trip to find Luke Skywalker, and despite her expectations of a hero-mentor figure she found a grumpy old man who didn't want to teach her anything. That was okay though, because Rey was used to people not wanting to teach her anything and she was both patient and observant. Eventually Luke relented and agreed to teach her, although not all of the things Rey thought she might learn. Some of it even made her uncomfortable. But for the first time in her life, she had a mentor, a teacher.

And Rey had _so many questions_.

At first, Rey stuck to the basics—the force, how to use it, why it existed, and anything related. After a while though, when Rey was tired of meditating one day, she decided to see if her new mentor would answer other things.

"Luke, what are alphas, betas, and omegas?"

Skywalker stared at her in his usual expressionless way but this time he seemed slightly surprised. After a while, he sighed, and then gave Rey the most thorough education on the three statuses that she'd ever heard. She learned about bonding, claims, and mates. She learned about having babies and forming a pack. She learned about platonic bonds and romantic bonds. When Luke finished his speech, Rey only seemed to have _more_ questions ("What if I don't have money to buy gifts for a potential mate?", "How do I know the difference between platonic and romantic bonds?", "How do I find out who a scent belongs to without offending them?").

After that point, Luke started using the non-Force related questions as rewards for training, which seemed to work well for both teacher and student. Luke didn't have to answer as many questions, and Rey had extra incentive to complete her tasks fully and quickly. Soon Rey was getting better at both being a Jedi and more knowledgeable about genders and mating. The call for assistance came over the long distance comms from the Resistance, and they had to pack up and leave to go back to D'Qar base.

====

Jessika Pava had never found her omega status to be a problem in the Resistance. Sure, there were lots of people—pilot or soldier—who would try to sniff her over, but her refusal would send them away if she wasn't interested. That was one of the biggest draws Jess had for signing up with the Resistance (other than opposing galactic facism)—her status didn't affect her rank or how anyone treated her. She was an ace pilot and no one could tell her not to fly just because she was an omega.

There were places in the galaxy where that wouldn't be the case, but fortunately Jess had never had to live there and she didn't want to start anytime soon. She was confident in her dating abilities and options—she'd even dated a few people on base and as long as they weren't within her unit it was fine. There were some mighty fine and attractive people around, although some of them she'd started to view as more siblings, like Poe. He might be an attractive alpha, but he was more of a brother to her now that she'd flown with him so much—and more recently because Dameron was obviously taken with Finn.

Finn was pretty attractive, Jess had to admit, but he wasn't attractive enough to make her want to ignore the clear interest between the him and Poe. Jess had even started running interference for Finn to keep other interested people from getting too handsy—not that Jess was worried about Resistance fighters being too intense or ignoring consent, but Finn was still new to being a considered an actual person by those around him, a person with feelings and interests versus just being a weapon. It could be overwhelming to have lots of people suddenly interested in dating and approaching all at once when you'd never had that happen before.

Apparently, all the Storm Troopers were given suppressants and scent modifiers, so Finn had never even known he was an omega before, didn't even really know what scents were. Before that, Finn had just had a neutral but mildly pleasant scent. Jess took him under her wing and helped him get his feet under himself but the whole time Jess could tell that what he really wanted was Poe—even before he could really smell anything or had a scent of his own. And it was obvious to everyone with eyes that it wasn't one-sided. Jess figured that was a mate bond just waiting to form if she ever saw one.

A couple times, right after Finn had been brought in to D'Qar, Jess had smelled something unlike any other scent, but it was always faint and fading, and she usually couldn't catch more than one sniff before it was gone. She didn't know what it was, but it couldn't be from one of the regular base members, and she couldn't think of anyone who would only be on the base occasionally. Traders maybe, but usually Resistance were their own traders and they didn't often come down to the surface, so Jess really didn't have any idea who it could be.

Now that Finn was awake and mostly recovered from his injuries, he kept talking about how he had met Chewbacca and Han Solo, and how they and his friend Rey were going to try and find Luke Skywalker and bring him back. It sounded far-fetched to Jess—Luke Skywalker was a figure of myth and legend among the Resistance—but Poe believed it so Jess had to give it some credence. Finn had been getting messages from Rey, telling him about her dreams and progress in her training, and Jess wondered idly if she might have to step in and let this Rey know not to try to get between Finn and Poe—but this urge only lasted until she next saw Finn and Poe staring at each other like lovesick idiots. This Rey wouldn't have a chance.

The day that Finn said his friends were supposed to be bringing Luke Skywalker back, Jess had her mandatory ground training and defense exercises. Pilots were required to attend ground training once a month after they became a full pilot, and usually the newbie pilots-in-training would get mixed in with them so they could get exposed to different fighters (who might be significantly above their level, as would probably happen in real combat). Of course, the newbie paired up with Jess forgot to take off his rings, and Jess ended up in medical with a profusely bleeding cut over her eye. It was really just a scratch, but like all head wounds it bled an obscene amount—the poor alpha who hit her was full-on panicking about it so Jess had to make him sit down before he hyperventilated and passed out.

Sighing, Jess sat waiting as Dr. Kalonia examined and treated the cut. "It's pretty shallow—you'll be fine." Pava thanked the doctor and then reported back to ground training, only to find out that she had the rest of the day off. She took the opportunity to grab a holoreader and a blanket and walked down to the clearing on the other side of the base.


	2. Always missing you, but Luke is glad to be of help

_Sighing, Jess sat waiting as Dr. Kalonia examined and treated the cut. "It's pretty shallow—you'll be fine." Pava thanked the doctor and then reported back to ground training, only to find out that she had the rest of the day off. She took the opportunity to grab a holoreader and a blanket and walked down to the clearing on the other side of the base._

====

When they arrived back at D'Qar, the first chance Rey got she went to go see Finn. She walked into medical and the doctor promptly told her Finn had already been cleared for regular duty now. The doctor, who introduced herself as Kalonia, retreated into the back areas soon after Rey thanked her and then the Jedi in training turned to leave when a smell caught her nose. She felt like she'd smelled it before, but Rey couldn't say where. She moved around the medical bay, sniffing and trying to find the source of the scent, and then she came to a spot that smelled like blood—the new smell was so sudden and intense that it put her hackles up and Rey growled. She did _not_ like that at all, which was weird, because she'd smelled blood before—some of it hers even—and had never reacted that way.

Sniffing around a bit more, the scent had faded other than the barest hint of blood, but that blood scent still made Rey feel uneasy, so she backed away from it with her hand over her nose until she couldn't smell it anymore. Just then, the doors to medical opened and Finn rushed in. "Rey! You're back!" Finn's arrival distracted her from the smell of blood and she returned his excited embrace. He pulled her out of medical by the hand to lead her away, wanting her to meet some people, and she pushed thoughts about that scent and her reaction to it to the back of her mind.

====

Jess spent the whole damn afternoon outside reading and she had no regrets. She'd finally gotten to the end of her novel that she'd been working through, and it was such a gripping work that she hadn't been able to set it down until it was over. She was glad she'd had enough hours to just power through it, but now the sun was setting and she needed to get back. Jess was just turning to go into the mess hall when she caught a whiff of a scent.

It was that same amazing smell she'd noticed earlier but hadn't been able to place, and now it seemed like that person had passed through again. It was too faint to pick anything out about the scent, not even which direction they went in, so Jess would have to wait till later to find out more about this mysterious person. Now that it seemed like this person did visit the base occasionally though, she was more certain about being able to track down who they were eventually. It didn't seem to be of any use worrying about it right this moment since she couldn't really do anything about it, so Jess continued on into the mess hall to eat.

====

It had been a week now, and still Rey couldn't figure out that scent. It strangely always seemed to be faint and old when she found it—it was never fresh or associated with any of the people she met. Well, that wasn't entirely true, Rey corrected herself. The problem was that the scent wasn't associated with any _single_ person she met. Instead, it seemed like everyone smelled a little bit like this scent to varying degrees—different people would have different degrees of association to it. It was enough to drive Rey to distraction and Luke had to keep reprimanding her for her inattention in lessons by refusing to answer her questions—and sometimes by giving her extra handstands, like today.

Rey sighed, still balancing on her hands upside-down, and concentrated on the feeling of existence of everything around her. She could feel the blades of grass bending slightly in the wind, the insects hopping patiently from leaf to leaf. She could feel Luke himself sitting nearby, feeling slightly disgruntled—although Rey wasn't sure if that was because she was actually sensing his emotions through the force or if she just happened to know he was disgruntled and had assigned that to the sense of _Luke-ness_ in her head.

She shook her head and concentrated again, pushing out further. Rey could feel the amorphous buzzing of life coming from the Resistance base a short distance away. The lifeless metal and tick of electronics that came from the ships sitting empty in the hangar. A bright spot of life that seemed to smell like-

Rey toppled over with a startled cry. Giving up for a moment, she sighed and just laid there on the ground with her eyes closed. She felt a presence next to her, and opened her eyes to find Luke sitting next to her, gazing down at her where she was still lying flat.

"Maybe you should start by telling me what's bothering you."

Rey let her head fall back to the ground with a muted thunk and sighed again. "It's probably not something important."

Skywalker raised a single eyebrow at her and didn't otherwise change his expression.

Sitting up, she said in resignation, "Okay, okay—I ... I smelled something." Luke raised a second eyebrow. "Someone."

When Rey didn't seem like she was going to be any more forthcoming, he said simply, "Why don't you tell me from the beginning."

By the time Rey finished telling him about the scent she'd found, the sun had drifted down pretty low in the sky. She looked up at her mentor to ask him about it, and then narrowed her eyes at him—yes, she was certain of it, the old man was smirking at her. "It's not funny, Luke! I can't track them down and I have no idea what's going on," she said exasperated and annoyed.

"Maybe you should let the force guide you," he said with a chuckle, then promptly stood up and started walking back to the base.

"Ugh," Rey groaned, falling onto her back again on the grass.

====

Jess glanced down at the datapad where she had been tracking the scent by time of day, recording when and where she found it. After finding a path that would keep her out of scent range but able to see the person on what Jess believed was their usual morning route, the pilot sat down to wait—she'd discovered that the newcomer walked through the mess at basically first light. Although Jess would never admit to waking up early on purpose to any of her friends, she felt this was one justifiable reason that could motivate her to get up before her start time. Usually Jess was on second shift, so she woke up later than the morning crew and had her breakfast just before their lunch time.

She could tell that whatever time this mystery person was on, it was before hers, and it had been bothering the Resistance pilot that she still hadn't pieced it together. So, by making a note on her datapad of times and locations and relative scent strength, she'd gradually come to understand their daily routine, or at least the first part of it. Jess guessed that this mystery alpha—they were almost certainly an alpha—was probably on morning shift, leaving before Jess woke up and coming back in while she was still out flying patrol.

Anyway, Jess pulled out her trusty holoreader and loaded an okay but not-too-distracting book and sat down in a spot with a clear view over the packing crates towards the mess hall doors. Lucky for her no one else was really awake this early so traffic was light so she wouldn't need to be always watching the mess—and she had surmised from the strength of the smell that this mystery alpha would be an exceptionally early riser, so it hopefully wouldn't be a long wait. Jess was strangely excited and awake, even though it was "ass-o'clock in the morning" as she called it. Her burning curiosity made Jess really want to know who this person was.

Jess had never been all that romantic about finding a 'one true mate' or anything like that, but this person smelled so good that the Resistance fighter was genuinely hoping that they would be interested back in her and that they would be single. It wasn't often that you met someone that smelled _this_ good, so she hoped it wouldn't be for no reason—not that she could say whether she'd even get on well with them yet.

The minutes ticked by and Jess had seen several people come out of the mess hall, but none of them were anyone knew so she mentally scratched them off her list. Then, just as the pilot was started to get bored of this game—and get a little bit sleepy, it was hours before her normal wakeup time after all—a pair of people walked out of the mess hall that Jess didn't recognize. As they drew closer, walking by her hiding spot, she _did_ recognize one of them—it was none other than Luke Skywalker, famed Jedi Knight of the Rebellion.

Was _Luke kriffing Skywalker_ the owner of that scent that she'd been smelling? The scent hadn't smelled like an old man, but maybe it was something to do with Force users? The young woman walking with Skywalker drew Jess' attention, reminding the pilot that there were two possible matches. As soon as the two disappeared into the woods, Jess jumped down from her hiding spot and then walked over the path they'd trod to check the scent—and found that tantalizing smell, this time much stronger than Jess had found at any time previously.

She spent longer than she'd like to admit standing there sniffing the air in the cold pre-dawn hours of the morning, but eventually Jess pulled herself together and went back to her quarters to plan—and sleep, since she could use a couple more hours of sleep, too. Later when Jess woke up again, she started planning to find out more about this girl and her Jedi trainer and Jess' mind mentally connected the dots between Finn's friend Rey—that Jess still hadn't met but knew had gone to look for Luke Skywalker—and this young woman who was now training with the famed Rebellion leader.

A few days later, Jess found her chance to find out more, specifically to see which of the two Jedi that potential mate scent was coming from. General Organa had finished up a meeting with her brother Luke and the Jedi was just standing there afterwards—probably doing some mystical Jedi Force-sensing thing or getting in tune with the universe, but Jess couldn't really tell what. Jess had been passing by in the hallway when she noticed them, and she stood there for a moment internally debating the wisdom of approaching the Jedi with a stupid question just for the excuse to get close enough to definitively scent him. Surely he would know what Jess was up to with his Jedi senses and send her away summarily? Sniffing surreptitiously, Jess could catch a faint mate-scent, but couldn't tell if Skywalker was actually the source or not. Finally Jess sighed and, swallowing her momentary fear, approached the man.

"Mr. Skywalker, sir? Could I ask you a ques-" Jess stopped mid-sentence as she walked closer to the Jedi and his scent hit her nose. It definitely wasn't him that had the mate scent, although the mate scent—Rey's scent, Jess mentally corrected herself—was certainly strong around him, which made sense from how often the two were off training together. It took a moment for Jess' brain to jumpstart itself after stalling with the lingering scent of Rey around the older Jedi. Blinking, Jess hurriedly continued, "Never mind, I think I already answered it. I'm sorry to have bothered you, sir."

Luke smiled, seeming very amused by Jess' antics and not at all annoyed like Jess had feared. "Glad to be of help," he said simply, and then turned and walked off. Jess just stood there a moment, blinking in surprise, before she shook herself and remembered that she had patrol duty to get to. She tucked her helmet more firmly under her arm and hurried off.


	3. A salivating relationship (and Jess' reluctance for it)

Rey found Luke sitting down and drinking tea on some crates just outside the mess hall—she didn't bother to ask him why because his answers to things like that were always cryptic, along the lines of "look into the Force, Rey". Instead Rey just plopped herself down next to him and looked in the direction he was looking. It was towards the end of the tarmac and with the gentle rolling hills in the distance, bracketed on either side by the greenery of the forest around them, Rey thought it was really rather pretty.

Neither of them said anything for a while, just enjoying the quiet company. Eventually, Rey turned to her master to ask him a question and then the faint scent hit her nostrils. She was immediately on her feet, sniffing around intently, trying to track it down.

Luke said nothing, but his eyes sparkled in amusement.

Eventually, Rey's aggressive sniffing found a spot that was marginally stronger than the rest at the far side of the crates, away from the rest of the base. It seemed that the owner of the scent had been here, but it was old and weak. In fact, it was already fading as her own and Luke's scents spread around the area. Rey let out a grunt of frustration.

"You haven't tried to use the Force to find her yet," Luke said, not accusing but definitely a pointed statement. He hadn't moved from his spot and was still calmly sipping at his tea.

Rey's eyes immediately fixed on her master. "Her?"

Luke hummed noncommittally. After a couple more minutes of scenting, Rey finally accepted that she'd lost the scent and went back over to sit by him. "How do I find someone with the Force?" Rey eventually asked.

"That is not an easy thing to describe. It's best to start with someone you know well." Rey turned to give Skywalker an unamused look. "Well, of course it's too easy to find _me_ because I'm sitting right next to you. But who else do you know here? Who else could you find?"

Rey exhaled sharply through her nostrils, then pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged and started to extend her senses outward with the Force. After a while of being overwhelmed with all the people walking around the base, the young Jedi found a prick of brighter light, something recognizable. "Finn," she said, "I can feel him. He's ... in the common area."

"Good. Who else is with him?"

Frowning, Rey concentrated. "Some people I don't know ... and Poe. Poe Dameron." She noticed that Poe and Finn were a little difficult to distinguish, wondering if maybe they were simply sitting too close to each other to feel them separately with the Force.

"Good. Now," Luke said, standing up and stretching out his legs, "if you practice tonight and tomorrow morning, I will excuse you from pre-lunch training and let you try to find her. But!" Skywalker raised a single finger in warning. "You have to use the force—you can't just use your nose."

Rey nodded immediately.

"Alright, go find your friends," he instructed, standing up and draining his tea.

Rey trotted off to go find out if Finn really was where she'd felt him. She found him curled up around Poe, practically in the pilot's lap, and she paused for a moment just outside the door to smile about it before walking in. As soon as she stepped into the large lounge area, Finn and Poe looked up from the holovid they'd been watching on Poe's handheld and they smiled brightly at her. Rey returned the smile and walked across the seating area—until she caught that scent again.

She froze in the middle of the room and immediately started sniffing the air.

Finn and Poe raised their eyebrows and exchanged looks with each other. "Is something wrong, Rey?" Poe asked with mild concern.

"No, I ... it's that scent again," Rey said distractedly, trying to focus her attention on her nose. The scent didn't seem to be focused on one area, and in general the entire room seemed to be suffused with the scent, like the owner spent a lot of time in here. There were a few seats where it was stronger, but nothing recent.

"What scent?" Finn asked, starting to sniff the air too. "I don't smell anything different."

Rey rumbled in annoyance. "I ... the scent is all over the room, but I think it's a person."

"I don't smell anything either," Poe said, also sniffing. "But there are a lot of people that spend time in here—like half the base—so it'll be really hard to find someone based off of whether they come in here."

"I've smelled them before, around the base, but I don't know who they are," Rey said absently, finding a chair that smelled stronger than any of the others. This one must have been used more recently.

Finn and Poe watched in mild amusement as Rey thoroughly sniffed one of the easy chairs, and then, with extreme seriousness and deliberateness, sat down in the chair rumbling. Poe and Finn shared a look with each other and Poe's lips quirked up into a grin, the pilot finally understanding what this was about. Rey shifted around to put her back against one of the arms so she could continue sniffing at the back of the chair, where the scent was stronger.

"Are you going to sniff the person that hard when you find them?" Poe asked giggling lightly, ducking away slightly when Finn slapped at him.

In response, Rey growled lowly at the chair—it wasn't a threatening growl, but it _was_ a possessive one.

Poe giggled again as quietly as he could at the display—someone finding a mate smell for the first time was always entertaining. Finn was curious, and though he didn't really understand what was going on and wanted to ask Poe about it, he left Poe to his quiet giggles and approached Rey. "Want me to smell it? See if I can see who it is?"

Rey rumbled at him in a mild warning, and Finn was glad then that Poe hadn't seemed interested in trying to offer help smelling, because him being an alpha would surely have caused a more aggressive reaction from Rey. After a beat, Rey leaned away from the chair in silent invitation to Finn to smell the chair. The former Storm Trooper put his nose to the back of the chair where Rey hadn't touched it much yet, and inhaled deeply.

Pulling back, Finn said, "Hmmm, I dunno—it smells like a lot of different people to me, but then, I'm not really used to smelling people still." He shrugged and looked back at Poe in silent question.

Poe held up both his hands. "No can do—if Rey's already this possessive of just the scent on the chair, I'm not going to go encroaching on her space."

Rey rumbled, but didn't argue with the pilot, and Finn rolled his eyes at alphas in general. After some time trying to talk to Rey, he and Poe managed to convince her to watch a holo with them, but she refused to move from the chair she'd picked. Poe just giggled again but Finn made them move to the couch right next to Rey, dragging the still chortling Poe with him. A few times during the holo, Finn and Poe noticed Rey rubbing the side of her neck on the chair, scent marking it. Later, when Rey had given up trying to stay awake any longer and had returned to her quarters to sleep, Finn asked Poe, "Is that normal alpha behavior? That scent marking thing?"

Poe scratched his chin. "Yes and no—no, it's not normal behavior for alphas, but it's fairly common for alphas who have found the scent of their mate." Finn perked up, happily surprised. "Yeah, I'm really happy for her, too—but it's gonna be a little weird like that till she actually meets her mate in person, and honestly I find it really funny. The last time I saw that was when we got called in to a rescue mission and ...."

====

Jess pulled off her helmet tiredly as soon as her X-wing had docked. She was exhausted. They been doing normal patrols when something anomalous had been picked up on one of the scans of their outer border regions. All patrols in flight had been put on high alert and they had had to do systematic sweeps over the whole kriffing sector before their watch officer would admit that it had just been debris and let them off.

Yawning hugely, she jumped down the ladder and started walking to the mess hall. When it was so late like this Jess usually lost her appetite, and so she wasn't really interested in eating but she figured she'd stop by the mess hall anyway to see if anything piqued her interest. Nothing did of course, so Jess grabbed a pastry and some fruit and wandered off towards the common room to eat it and relax. All the echo-y noise in the mess hall was giving her a headache, and all she really wanted was some peace and quiet before she went back to her quarters. She was of half a mind to just skip the common area and go straight to her room, but she was already most of the way there by the time the thought occurred to her, so she just kept on going towards the common room. Her judgement was always shot when she got this tired.

She idly bit into the apple and chewed, not really sure if she felt like eating the whole thing or not, and entered the common area, seeking out the chair she liked—apparently a lot of people liked it and she usually had to fight someone for it—but since no one was awake right now she could have it all to herself. She smiled as she chewed, and then suddenly that mate scent hit her nose.

Jess' nostrils flared and she involuntarily opened her mouth to get a better read on the scent, forgetting that she had a piece of apple in her mouth, which promptly fell out onto the floor. The Resistance pilot was dimly aware of the falling food, but she was so entranced by that scent that she quickly pushed it from her mind. Jess could tell that alpha had been sitting in her seat—Rey, she corrected herself—and judging from the strength of the smell, the Jedi-in-training had _scent_ _-_ _marked_ the chair. Jess had to take a moment for that thought to sink in. This alpha, that Jess had been sniffing out for days, had found the chair that Jess had been reading in this morning, and had _scent_ _-_ _marked_ it.

An embarrassing whine escaped Jess' throat before she could stop herself as she realized what the alpha had done, and she felt the urge to go over and press her nose into the chair. This alpha, Rey, was _scent marking_. Suddenly Jess found her mouth watering, but not in desire to eat food.

A little overwhelmed by her own reaction, Jess backed away from the scent-marked chair. She didn't particularly want to be this attracted to some alpha she'd never met—she'd never been that much of a romantic. Sure, okay, she'd woken up early just to try and track them down, and she'd meticulously recorded the location of their scent, and she'd even approached the kriffing Jedi hero of the Rebellion just to find out who this mystery alpha was. But curiosity about knowing who an unknown mate was versus having said mate's scent causing very real reactions were two very different things, and this was now pushing Jess beyond her comfort levels. She shouldn't be salivating just from the alpha's kriffing scent marks.

Backing away even further so she could get some cleaner air, Jess took a deep breath, and then hurried out of the common area and to her quarters. If she was being honest, the idea that some Jedi-in-training was interested in her was also a little intimidating—and she couldn't confirm that the alpha had been scent marking because of Jess' scent specifically. A lot of people had been in that chair, so it could be anyone that the alpha was trying to attract.

Trying to convince herself that it wasn't actually her the alpha was after, Jess knew she just needed to get a clearer head and maybe figure out what she wanted, maybe plan a way to find out more about the Jedi before committing to a salivating relationship with her. Feeling more clear headed as she entered her quarters, she thought maybe she could have Finn introduce them, since he was such good friends with Rey, and then she could find out first hand if the alpha was as interested in her as she was in the alpha. That would be the much more rational and measured response. No need to get herself worked up into a pre-heat over it.

After taking a long shower to calm herself down, Jess put herself to bed right away. With the stress of patrols and then the wild rollercoaster of emotions when she'd found that scent marking, the pilot was drained, and dropped off to sleep the moment her head hit the pillow.


	4. Touching the letters of her name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize in advance for the bit with the apple, because it's admittedly a touch gross but it just seemed to work with the story and I couldn't find another idea that seemed to work as well. Also just as a sidenote, Rey lived most of her life starving as a scavenger on a loosely populated desert planet, so she's probably a whole lot less squeamish about eating "dirty" or "bad" food than say, your average modern city-goer.  
> ====

Rey woke up even earlier than usual the next morning, finding it impossible to keep sleeping even though it was so early. She bounded up from the bed, still in her clothes from the day before, though they sadly no longer smelled of that mystery scent. Chucking them off, the young Jedi went to take a shower and put on clean clothes—she was still getting used to the idea of wearing clean clothes every day, but both Chewie and Han had insisted on it when she traveled with them, and later Luke did the same. 

She hadn't wanted to change her clothes last night so she could sleep in that scent—in fact, Rey hadn't even wanted to leave that chair, and it took both Finn and Poe to convince her to return to her quarters for the night on the promise that they would both help her search in the morning. Looking at the time, Rey knew they certainly wouldn't be awake yet and probably would be very resistant to her trying to wake them up. Rey felt restless and antsy, so she decided to go out and try to sniff out that chair again. 

When she made it back to the common area, she found that smell again, but it was stronger and fresher—and there was something that smelled strongly of mate scent still in the room. Rey sniffed around the room intently until she found a mostly chewed bit of fruit covered in mate-scent. The young Jedi was vaguely aware that sniffing on everything might be a bad idea, but went ahead and sniffed at the bit of apple, and then, ignoring all her internal warnings, licked it. 

Suddenly it seemed to Rey that her skin was a size too small and also felt incredibly hot and itchy. She belatedly realized that she must be going into induced rut—she'd had a rut once before while on Jakku and it hadn't been pretty. Going into rut right now would be bad—Rey's mate wasn't here and the alpha still didn't know where they were, and if the Jedi went into a rut right now she might be stuck in this room or a rut room without being able to keep hunting for her mate. And right now, what Rey wanted more than anything else was to find her mate. 

Remembering her master's words about the Force, Rey drew into herself, trying to feel the force in objects around her. For some reason, her impending rut seemed to make everything shimmer and dance in her Force sense, but she could still sense things with the Force anyway. Rey focused herself on the piece of apple in her hands, trying to find the essence of the person—but unlike when she'd focused on Finn or Poe, Rey still hadn't met her mate yet so she found she couldn't sense the actual person. 

But maybe, a thought dawned on her, maybe Rey could sense the scent through the force? It would be better than using her nose—and drawing on the Force like this seemed to be keeping her rut at bay, at least for a little while. It wouldn't be a permanent solution, but it would work for now. 

Focusing on the scent with the force, Rey found a glowing fuzzy trail in her mind leading her away from the chair and out of the room. She frowned a little when she realized that her mate hadn't approached the chair, but she shook her head and just kept following the trail. At one point the trail split and Rey couldn't tell which way was better, so she just picked one and followed it. She went past the mess hall without entering, and then found herself in the flight hangar. 

Suddenly, the search for the person that had been so impossible earlier now seemed doable, like a light burning through the fog (which she'd seen for the first time on Luke's island). Rey was close to something and getting closer, something that was important to her mate as a person. Rey followed both the scent and the feeling to an otherwise unremarkable X-wing fighter. Hopping up the ladder to sniff inside the cockpit, Rey confirmed that this was indeed her mate's ship and started looking around to see what identifying information she could find. After some quick looking, on one side of the ship towards the front she found the name 'Jessika "Testor" Pava' written in yellow paint. Rey rubbed her hand over the letters, burning them into memory, and then she heard something in the hangar bay—the sounds of soft steps approaching. 

==== 

Despite being up so late, Jess woke up early. _Unconscionably_ early, Jess corrected herself when she looked over at the time. She rolled over a few times, but couldn't seem to get settled. Her mind kept going back to that scent-marked chair and spiraled into what-ifs about that damned alpha, until Jess got fed up and decided to find something to calm herself down. Of course, the best way to calm Jess down—or wake her up, or make her happy or excited, or basically every good emotion—was flying, so Jess pulled down her flightsuit and threw it on over her sleep clothes. It wasn't like she had to worry about anyone noticing the clothes under her flightsuit or any pre-dawn inspections while she flew herself to sleep at such an early hour. Zipping up her suit, she grabbed her helmet and left her quarters. 

She was tired and still distracted by her thoughts, so Jess wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings, and it wasn't until she went past Iolo's fighter to reach hers that she noticed that she wasn't the only one awake right now. There, standing at her fighter with one hand touching the letters of her name, was Rey, the very alpha who had been haunting Jess' thoughts. The Resistance pilot froze as soon as she saw Rey, and the two women studied each other for a moment. Normally the Jedi-in-training had her hair up in an elaborate series of buns on her head, but now her hair fell in soft waves past her shoulders. 

After a few moments of stillness, the alpha's hand curled around the letters on the side of Jess' ship and then dropped down to her side. With careful steps, Rey came closer, her nostrils flaring frequently. A shiver ran up and then down Jess' spine when she saw the motion, recognizing it as a potential mate scenting for her. Jess found her own nostrils flaring, only half under her control, as she scented the air as well. When the Jedi drew within arm's reach, Jess was unable to resist the urge to open her mouth slightly, pulling in air over her tongue to better taste that scent. 

Rey rumbled, Jess' instincts smoothly interpreting the sound as approval, and Jess let out an almost silent whine. The Jedi held herself still in front of her, as if telling Jess that it was her turn to move now. The Resistance pilot shifted, clenching and unclenching her fists, trying to decide if she wanted to fight her instincts now that the alpha was in front of her. The woman was obviously interested, and Jess was having a really hard time remembering or caring about her previous reasons to want to go slow. Rey just smelled so damn _good._  

Finally giving in to her inner omega, Jess inched forward cautiously, leaning towards the taller Jedi. Jess _really_ wanted to get a better sniff of the alpha, so when she was just a pace away she raised her nose up towards Rey's neck, where the scent glands were. Rey, accommodating the unspoken request, lowered that shoulder and turned her head, exposing the side of her neck to her mate's nose. 

Jess made a noise in the back of her throat and instinctively surged forward, touching her nose to her mate's neck and making skin contact for the first time. As soon as she made contact, Jess inhaled deeply, and her mate rumbled again in approval. Jess couldn't seem to get enough of the scent—a combination of mate scent and the beginnings of rut—and just kept breathing it in. 

Jess wasn't aware of how much time they had spent there, but suddenly the base alarms sounded—one of the rare but hated early-morning drill sequences, all hands on deck. Startled by the noise, Jess sprang away, and she heard voices shouting and calling out in the distance. Hearing all the noise distantly as if through a thick fog, the pilot came to the realization that she was going into heat and would definitely be unable to fly. She stumbled away to one of the service corridors, and thankfully Jess knew all the back ways to the hangar from all her midnight trips, because she was able to use that knowledge to get around all the usual routes from the barracks and dormitories to the hangar and make her way to medical without running into anyone on their way to participate in the drill. 

In her flight suit and carrying her helmet, Jess burst into medical to find the doctor awake with several med droids. It didn't take Jess long to convey what the problem was—she had obvious signs of going into heat—and the doctor administered an injected suppressant. Since it would take a while before it could take effect enough for Jess to be able to pilot a spacecraft, Dr. Kalonia called into command that Pava was unable to fly except in the case of an emergency base evacuation. The doctor then ordered Jess back to her room, and Jess fled to safety. 

==== 

As soon as the alarm sounded and her mate sprang away from her, something told Rey to let the other woman run without chasing her, but it was a near thing. Rey trusted that instinct though and let her mate run—Jessika had smelled of fear, which made Rey feel uneasy about pursuing her—as the other pilots started running into the hangar to take off in their aircraft. Rey ignored them for the most part, and let her senses follow her mate, wanting to make sure that she made it to a safe place even if Rey hadn't allowed herself to follow the omega physically. 

Soon, there were people swarming around her—and they froze as soon as they got within a few meters' radius of her, covering their noses and stepping back. "Rey??" a familiar voice asked incredulously, and Rey turned to see Poe standing there staring at her in shock. 

"Rey, you're in your rut—you need to get out of here," another pilot she knew was saying, but whose name Rey found it difficult to remember all of a sudden. The pilot stepped towards Rey, trying to wave the young Jedi off to the side. 

The motion and proximity set Rey off, and she involuntarily snarled menacingly at the pilot, who stepped back quickly, hands held up in surrender. 

Poe cut through the tense standoff, saying, "Please Rey, we need you off the floor—maybe Luke can give you a task to do to help?" 

Rey resisted her urge to growl at him too and just nodded. Stalking across the floor towards where she felt her master to be, the crowds of people rushing to battle stations parted smoothly around her. Some of the Resistance soldiers rushing by reacted to her scent—there was an alpha or two that eyed her closely as she went by, and turned to face her as she went past so they wouldn't have their back to her. Several omegas and betas shivered or hunched a little, finding Rey's scent enticing and following the young Jedi's angry stalk with their eyes, wondering if they could approach her. The active drill status of the base made it impossible of course, and Rey didn't stop walking, so they were forced to continue on to their battle stations. 

There may have been lots of people in the crowd who smelled okay or even good to the young Jedi, but none of them were her _mate_ —her mate, Jessika Pava—and that was the only person Rey wanted right now. Thinking of her, Rey automatically started to sense with the force to see where Jessika was now, and found the omega in medical. Frowning, Rey instantly detoured towards her mate—Luke could call her if he actually required her help for anything—the alpha needing to confirm Jessika was okay. She continued ignoring the people parting around her until she was finally out of the high traffic areas. 

Before Rey could reach medical though, she felt her mate leave the med bay and go to the barracks. The Resistance pilot wasn't returning to her ship despite the drill, and that worried Rey. The young Jedi followed her feeling of her mate until she found herself in the single officer quarters in front of a closed door. Remembering the fear with which her mate had fled, Rey didn't want to make Jessika feel trapped or startled, so she pulsed the door buzzer while standing off to the side of the door, and waited.


	5. Oh no you don't!

Jess was feeling hot and sweaty and itchy, and _gods_ she hated heats. She couldn't wait for the suppressants she'd been given to kick in and start working. After pacing for a few minutes, she finally flopped down onto her bed. She'd peeled off her flight suit, which was still hanging over her desk chair—it would definitely have to be cleaned now that she'd stunk it up with heat pheromones—but Jess was waiting for someone to give her the all clear so she could fly. 

She wasn't able to argue with the doctor's orders that she was grounded—at least not in good conscience—but that didn't meant she _liked_ being grounded. Even if it was just a drill and not a real emergency, the pilot was irritable and didn't want to just sit around. She briefly picked up her holoreader before putting it back on the side table. Jess wondered how long the drill would be going on and if she would still be able to join in once the drugs kicked in. 

She was feeling bored and restless, so when Jess heard her door chime, she granted entrance immediately by verbal command, hoping that it would be someone to come tell her to suit up and fly. At first she didn't see anyone, then she saw _her_ —Rey, the alpha that had been occupying Jess' thoughts and dreams for days—standing off to the side, leaning slightly to peer around the door. Jess was keyed up and antsy, so when she saw the alpha Jess instantly stiffened and backed up. 

In response, Jess could see Rey hunch down and try to make herself physically smaller, making Jess realize what her own instinctive reaction on seeing the alpha had been. Jess forced herself to relax slightly, reminding herself that this alpha had been very concerned about approaching her in a non-threatening way and in general seeking Jess' consent and level of interest. Having a rutted-up alpha standing in her doorway—and she could definitely tell that Rey was fully in rut now, the scent had rolled in as soon as the doors had slid open—while Jess was in heat had just tripped one of Jess' internal safety alarms and she'd reacted automatically. 

Now that Jess could see that Rey was waiting outside, mindful enough of Jess' fear that she didn't block the doorway and didn't enter without explicit consent, Jess found herself much calmer. The scent of the alpha muddling her senses a little made it a little difficult to remember that she needed to give the alpha a response, but finally, Jess nodded to the waiting Jedi-in-training. 

Rey seemed relieved and stepped inside carefully, the doors sliding shut behind her. She smiled softly at Jess, and then seemed to not know what else to do with herself, so the Jedi-in-training just stood there in front of the door fidgeting anxiously. Jess' mouth twitched in amusement, and she sat down on her bed, patting the spot next to her in invitation. Rey perked up immediately, and walked over to the bed with what looked like restrained excitement—Jess could almost imagine the other woman with a tail wagging vigorously behind her—before perching on the edge of the bed. 

Suddenly, the scent of the alpha was all over, and Jess could even taste the rut in the air. All the words that she had been thinking about saying immediately fled from her head, and Jess made an impatient noise in the back of her throat, leaning forward unconsciously towards the alpha. Rey rumbled and leaned towards Jess as well, meeting the omega halfway. Jess' eyes were drawn to the alpha's neck, and she continued leaning forward until she again had her nose pressed against the base of the alpha's neck, right where the alpha and rut scent was strongest. Jess licked her lips, feeling the urge to taste the alpha, and then slowly extended her tongue until she had drawn it over Rey's scent glands. 

Rey moaned and tilted her head further to the side, giving Jess more access—and Jess took it, rubbing her nose into the alpha's neck and occasionally licking. Jess didn't realize she'd been practically climbing on the young Jedi until they both toppled backwards onto the bed in a heap with Jess on top. Finding herself pressed against this amazingly good smelling alpha's chest, Jess rumbled in approval, making Rey smile underneath her. Jess rather liked being on top of this alpha, who made appreciative noises as Jess' hands stroked up and down Rey's sides and into the young Jedi's hair. 

Feeling a little bold, Jess let her hands drop to the hem of Rey's top, her fingers seeking the skin she found at the slight gap there. Jess moaned at the touch of the soft skin there, and Rey squirmed a little—now the air smelled of alpha in rut with a strong spike of arousal. Jess rolled to straddle the Jedi, rumbling in pleasure and inhaling deeply from Rey's neck. Jess had just started sucking on the spot directly over Rey's scent glands—the alpha rut was _so good_ —making Rey moan and buck her hips under Jess' hands, when the door chime sounded again. 

Jess only paused momentarily before choosing to ignore it, going back to sucking and nibbling at the alpha, when the door chime sounded yet again and the doors opened. Only specially authorized personnel like base security or high ranking officers could force a door to open—or medical staff, Jess added in her head as she turned to see Dr. Kalonia standing in her doorway. 

"Oh no you don't!" the doctor said firmly, advancing towards the bed with purpose. "She was just given a suppressant and you can't mate with someone on suppressants—it would be bad for both of you." 

Jess snarled at the doctor, the conflict between scent of the alpha rut and the suppressants making her irritable. The doctor didn't seem to be at all disturbed by the omega's reaction, and simply set out her medical case on a nearby table to pull out a syringe. 

==== 

Despite the start of her rut, Rey knew on a fundamental level that the doctor was there to help them, and tried to assist by distracting Jessika with growls and caresses. It gave the doctor time to get her medical equipment on a side table and select the right item within. Rey had no idea what it was, but the feeling that she was getting from the doctor seemed helpful and honest. 

The doctor tapped on the side of the syringe to clear the air bubbles, muttering, "I smelled alpha rut and somehow I just _knew_ that you were going to find yourself here." Dr. Kalonia walked over to the bed and coaxed Rey to turn over, effectively trapping Jessika underneath her. The pilot tried to wriggle out from underneath so she could chase the doctor out, but Rey started sniffing and licking at the omega's neck. Jessika's instincts immediately took over and she went limp under Rey, letting the alpha sniff at her, shivering at the feeling of warm breath on her neck. 

The doctor took advantage of Rey's distraction, and pulled down the back of the alpha's pants to expose the upper part of her ass. Rey couldn't see what was going on, but she guessed that's where she was going to get the injection when she felt something cold wiped against her skin. To keep both Jessika and herself still, Rey started licking the omega's neck right over the sensitive skin at the base, making Jessika shiver and moan but otherwise hold perfectly still. 

It may have been a bad decision on Rey's part, as she felt suddenly light-headed at the taste of the omega on her tongue. Fortunately, the doctor knew she needed to work quickly, and just then Rey felt the tiny pinch of the needle breaking her skin. Jessika was still moaning underneath her, so Rey rumbled approvingly and continued sniffing and licking at the omega's neck. 

"Good, that's it," Dr. Kalonia praised, slowly emptying the syringe into Rey. Once it was completely emptied, she drew the needle back out and deftly replaced it with a bandage. Rey heard the doctor putting everything away in her medical case, brusquely stating her orders for both of them. "No sex until your suppressants wear off, which should be twenty-four hours. Mandatory quarantine for five hours, but it's recommended that you stay in quarters for the next sixteen hours to avoid disruptions among other personnel." Dr. Kalonia closed her medical case with a snap and picked it up, looking over at the pair on the bed. 

Rey had stopped sniffing or licking so she could pay attention to what the doctor said, and Jessika was slowly coming out of her daze from Rey licking her neck, the Resistance pilot was blinking over at the doctor as if puzzled about why Kalonia was standing in Jess' quarters. 

"Oh, and since I get to be the first to say it, congratulations on your upcoming mating," Kalonia said, dropping her businesslike manner and smiling at both of them warmly. Then she hefted her case and strode for the door. "Now, I'd better go make sure no one else needs me in the med bay." 

When the door closed shut with a soft whish behind the doctor, Rey turned to look at Jessika and found the shorter woman blushing furiously at what the doctor had said. Smiling, Rey nuzzled against the omega's cheek, pulling a wide smile from the pilot.


	6. Not my fault you smelled good

Jess could tell that the rut smell was fading—as well as the arousal scent, there must have been something in the suppressant to dampen it—and her head also started clearing up with it, letting her think more clearly. She wrapped her arms around Rey as the Jedi continued nuzzling Jess' cheek, sinking her fingers into Rey's hair. Rey sighed in pleasure at the sensation gently pushed Jess back down onto the bed. 

Freeing a hand, Jess held up a finger and then tapped the Jedi on the nose. "No sex, doctor's orders," Jess said firmly. 

Rey chuckled. "Well _you_ were the one growling at her for interrupting us," she said, planting a tender kiss on Jess' cheek. 

It was the first time Jess had ever heard Rey speak and _oh Force_ the woman had a sexy voice. And a sexy accent. Well, honestly, all of Rey was sexy. 

"Not my fault—you smelled really, _really_ good," Jess protested. 

"You were doing a bit more than just smelling," Rey teased, slowly trailing kisses over Jess' face and running her fingers through Jess' hair. 

Jess hummed, remembering the feeling of Rey's skin under her lips, and bit down lightly on her lower lip. "It was probably a good thing the doctor stopped by when she did—I was just about ready to pull all your clothes off and beg you to claim me." 

Rey growled lowly, pinning Jess down against the bed firmly. "I don't think we should talk about sex right now," she said, her voice dropping an octave and somehow becoming even sexier than it was before. "Not until the suppressant kicks in—or preferably after it wears off." 

Jess hummed again, this time in amusement, and wriggled in Rey's arms until she could look into the Jedi's eyes. "So you're saying I'm not actually the naughty one in this situation," Jess said, with laughter in her tone. 

Rey snorted half-heartedly. "That remains to be seen." 

Now that Jess had Rey's face so close and she could see the Jedi's eyes dropping repeatedly to her lips, the omega pilot found that she couldn't resist any longer. Jess raised her head and softly pressed her lips to Rey's. Pure warmth and pleasure shot through Jess' body, and she could feel Rey's sharp inhalation against her skin. Rey's lips tasted even sweeter than her neck had to Jess, and the pilot lost herself in the sensation of kissing her mate. 

Jess wasn't really all that aware of what the rest of her body—or Rey's—was doing. It was lost in a sea of sensation, of hands rubbing up and down her back, running her fingers through Rey's soft tresses, fingers finding brief flashes of naked skin under or around their clothes. She thought she'd probably just caressed all of Rey's body now, and Rey had done the same to hers. If just rolling around on Jess' bed fully clothed and kissing her mate was this good now, Jess couldn't even imagine how good it would be when they could finally get off suppressants. 

Eventually, they surfaced for air, panting against each other's cheeks, still holding on. 

"Wow," Rey said, breathless. 

"My thoughts exactly," Jess said, eyes closed and resting her forehead against Rey's. "I think this is going to be _intense_ when we get off suppressants." 

Rey lifted up her head to study Jess' expression. "Is that a bad thing?" 

Jess blinked. "No, or at least I don't think so, but ... it won't be soft and gentle like this." 

Drawing a finger slowly along the omega's jawline, Rey said in a soft whisper, "I can be soft and gentle." 

Jess shivered in pleasure, and bit her lip again. "Maybe I won't want soft and gentle." 

Rey growled and pressed her hips into the omega, before drawing the pilot back into a passionate kiss. Jess responded in kind to the kiss, and found that while the last one had been like exploration and declarations of love, this kiss was like fire, burning with a heat that made Jess' hands fist into her mates clothing, on the edge of ripping all of it off. 

Gradually they softened the kiss to something more sedate and loving, more exploratory like the last one, and they started kissing all over each other's bodies—face, neck, shoulders, hands, stomach, arms. Jess was surprised that all of this activity wasn't making her yearn for sex, but she guessed that it was probably the suppressant at work. 

When they finally stopped and just held each other in their arms, Jess said, "I wonder how all this activity is affecting the suppressants." 

Jess felt Rey grin into her hair, and the Jedi replied, "Well, at least she didn't say we couldn't lay here and make out like lovesick fools—we're only banned from having sex." 

"And only for twenty-four hours," Jess added, leaning her head back to wiggle her eyebrows roguishly at her mate. 

Rey laughed, then kissed into Jess' hair and around to the back of her neck. "Are you counting down the hours? Should I make sure I'm here when that time is up?" she asked playfully between kisses. 

Jess hummed, enjoying the kisses. "Well, judging by how we acted around each other before the suppressants, if we're around each other it's probably going to be like hyperspace jumping directly to sex. I mean, I don't think _I_ could have kept my clothes on much longer even when I was sniffing you in the flight bay." 

Rey rolled Jess over so they were both facing each other. "Were you really going to have sex with me in the middle of the hangar?" she asked in surprise. 

"If we had kept sniffing the way we had been? Yeah. Or if I had started licking your neck the way we did when we got back here." Jess said, decisively. "I wouldn't have cared one bit if there were other pilots running around us." 

"Wow," Rey said, sounding dazed. 

Before Jess could respond—and she was pretty sure it was going to be something dirty—Jess' door chimed again. 

Jess let her head fall down onto the bed in resignation. "Again?" she asked rhetorically, and then granted permission for whoever it was to enter. 

To Jess' complete surprise, it was none other than Luke Skywalker, the legend of the Rebellion—well, now that Jess thought about it, it shouldn't have been a complete surprise, considering she had the man's trainee in her quarters. The Jedi stepped inside and folded his hands calmly in front of him. 

==== 

Rey groaned. "I thought I was ordered to remain in quarantine," she complained into Jessika's shoulder. 

Skywalker nodded. "But with essentially the entire base on drills right now, we can slip out without disturbing anyone much." 

Rey sighed. 

Luke smiled, and added, "Besides, I suspect that you both might be in a more severe quarantine in the near future." Both women blushed brightly. The elder Jedi turned and walked to the door. "Come, Padawan—let's get some work out of you while we can." When the doors opened, he stepped through them and out of the room. 

Rey sighed again, and turned to face Jessika, kissing her softly in apology. 

"I'll see you later?" the omega asked. "Tonight when you're done with your training?" 

Rey brightened noticeably, hearing the implied suggestion. "You want me to sleep here in your quarters? With you?" 

Jessika fidgeted. "I mean, if you want ... unless you want to try and wait before we ...," she trailed off, leaving the question hanging. 

"I don't mind jumping right in," Rey said hurriedly, guessing where Jessika's hesitation stemmed from. "I'm not sure I could wait that long in any case—not when I can smell you everywhere and know where your quarters are." 

Jessika looked relieved. "Oh, thank _gods_ —I didn't think I could wait either." The pilot ducked her head in chagrin. "I guess I should have thought about that before I ran off to the med bay to get suppressants, but all I was thinking about was getting it to stop before it spiraled out of control and then getting into my ship." 

Rey gently stroked a hand over Jessika's hair in comfort, which was currently very thoroughly mussed, and kissed her mate again. "Don't worry about it. I wasn't thinking very clearly at that point either—and now we both know exactly what we want, and we don't have to worry about trying to navigate consent while also having rut- and heat-brain." 

Jessika laughed lightly. "You're right. It's probably better this way." She grabbed Rey by the sides of her head and pulled the Jedi's face down to kiss her soundly. "Have a good day training," Jessika said with feeling, and released her hold to step back. 

"Yeah," Rey replied, a little dazed, and said her goodbyes. She backed up to the door and then out of it when it opened, but Rey couldn't bring herself to turn away from Jessika until the doors closed between them. Sighing, Rey took off at a light trot so she could catch up to her master. True to his word, there were very few Resistance fighters around in the parts of the base that she passed through—although all of them stopped to sniff the air and stare at her when she went past. Apparently the suppressants were still letting a lot of her rut scent through—which made sense, since the doctor said five hours' quarantine minimum. 

Soon enough, she was free of the base and outside in the blessedly cooler air, and headed into the forest. At least no one would be sniffing at her out there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might be cutting these chapters too short, but I think my scenes might be pretty short in general in this fic.


	7. Now if you don't mind, I'm going flying

Since she had woken up so early and had gone to medical immediately after the drill alarm, Jess' five hour minimum quarantine was over not too long after Rey left—which was fortunate for Jess, because she didn't think she could spend any more time trapped in her quarters without something, or someone, to distract her. She called to the med bay to have Dr. Kalonia explicitly confirm that her minimum quarantine was up—although the doctor again made her listen to the warning about not staying for the entire recommended quarantine first before giving her official approval.

 Jess couldn't wait any longer though. She hadn't had breakfast yet, and it was now after 1000 hours, so she immediately headed for the mess hall. The drill was now over, but nearly everyone was either at their normal duty posts or was catching up on missed sleep, so the mess was pretty quiet. A few people were wandering around, but mostly they were people who for one reason or another hadn't gotten a chance to eat before and were too hungry to wait till lunchtime.

 Grabbing her tray, Jess selected a few items from the all-hours section, since lunch hadn't come up yet and the leftover scrambled eggs from breakfast did _not_ look appetizing. She did grab some pieces of bacon and sausage though, and then went through to grab some fruit. Jess plopped herself down at one of the many empty tables and tucked in, intending to get some food in her system before someone realized she was no longer grounded and sent her to work—or, worse, before Dr. Kalonia found someone to order Jess back to her quarters because she should still be in quarantine.

 A large group of soldiers came into the mess just then—Jess guessed they had been on some post-drill routine and had just been let out. The noise level in the room increased dramatically, but it didn't really bother Jess much, who was mostly just focused on filling the yawning hole in her stomach.

 "Whoa, slow down there, speedy," one of the soldiers said as he walked past Jess' table. "You might have to fly fast, but you shouldn't eat that way—you might accidentally lose a finger like that."

 Jess rolled her eyes, but didn't respond since she'd just taken a big bite. The soldier, Mika, had been on the general training team when Jess had been a recruit, so she knew him fairly well but it wasn't a close friendship. He turned as if to continue on towards the trays but then suddenly stopped and sat down on the bench next to her. Mika then proceded to tell Jess all about the extra training maneuvers they'd been involved in for the past few hours. It was unusual for Mika to seek her out like that but not unheard of, so Jess didn't make much note of it, and simply provided the little feedback that his story required.

 Soon though, the other soldiers from the squad were plopping down at her table as well, and Jess was regretting not having chased Mika off when she had the chance. Well, it wasn't the end of the world, and although the soldiers were boisterous and noisy, elbowing each other or slapping shoulders, they seemed friendly enough. One or two of them that she'd never met before introduced themselves to her, and she shook hands across the table. The soldiers around the table seemed to get even more boisterous, and Jess just hurried to eat her food as fast as she possibly could.

 She cleaned the last of her plate, and bounded up from her seat, grabbing her tray and turning, throwing a general goodbye to the table at large over her shoulder. Mere seconds after she started walking briskly towards the tray drop-off, Mika appeared at her side.

 "You're leaving already? But we haven't talked in forever," he said, keeping pace with her.

 "Yep, gotta get back in the air. We'll have to catch up later," Jess said, a little surprised by the alpha's persistence.

 "Well ... I still gotta finish telling you my story," he said with an air of determination that seemed out of place to Jess.

 She raised an eyebrow at him, dropping her tray off on a cart. "I thought you finished it."

 "No no, it's ... another story," he said.

 Jess could tell that something wasn't normal here, and then suddenly the pieces clicked together in her head—it was her heat. The recommended quarantine wasn't over, and he was probably picking up some heat scent off of her. The omega pilot sighed inwardly. Quickly, and without telegraphing her intention, Jess grabbed the back of Mika's neck and pinned the man to one of the nearby support columns, using a pressure point to hold him none-too-gently against the column.

 "No, don't move," she said quickly when Mika started to move like he was going to escape the pin. "Look, Mika. I don't hate you—I don't particularly like hanging out with you all that much either, but at least I don't hate you." Jess then leaned closer and said in a threatening manner, "But if you keep up the way you're going, I can definitely find it in me to move you over into the Hate column."

 "Miss, is this man bothering you?"

 Jess looked up to see a kitchen worker standing next to her. "Nope, I think I've got it myself, thanks!" she said in a false cheery voice and turned away from the newcomer.

 "Because if he's bothering you I can take care of him," the unknown man—another alpha, by the scent of him, and oh god, all Jess fucking wanted was to eat lunch and then leave.

 Of course, now Mika growled at the challenge and wriggled out of Jess' grasp, circling around the pilot until he had a clear shot at the kitchen worker and then charged at the other man with a yell. The two fell to the ground a mess of flailing limbs, and Jess raised her eyes to the ceiling in exasperation. She calmly stepped around the spitting catfight and grabbed a bottle of pressurized water from behind the mess counter, then turned and used it to spray both of them, effectively breaking up the fight.

 When two dripping wet faces turned their attention to her in surprise, Jess said in her most no-nonsense voice, "Good, now you," she gestured to the kitchen worker, whose cut lip was dripping blood everywhere, "report to the med bay for treatment, and you," pointing to Mika, "go fuck off to wherever else you need to be." When neither of them moved to obey immediately, Jess snapped, "Well?? Don't make me wait all day."

 The two men jumped up, and although they both eyed one another, they seemed to hear how pissed Jess was and so ran off to obey her commands with alacrity. Setting the pressurized bottle back behind the counter, Jess internally congratulated herself for a job well done and went to check in with her commanding officer to find out what her squadron was doing. About halfway there Jess realized that she'd sent one of those fighting idiots off to see the one person who would probably take one look at him and know instantly why he'd gotten in a fight.

 Groaning at herself for her own stupidity, the omega pilot hurried down the hall. Luckily there weren't a lot of people about, so she didn't get more than a quick glance or two as she passed by—she was sure some of them had probably turned to stare after her once she'd gone past, but they were all on duty of one kind or another so she felt relatively certain that none of them would try to pull what Mika had in the mess hall and chase after her.

 She got to her squad without any further incident, and joined in the back to listen in to the drill rundown that Captain Smye, their commanding officer, was giving. Their scheduled patrol wasn't for a few hours, so they had some time, and since they'd been woken up by the drill Smye was apparently trying to fill in that time constructively. One of the junior pilots, a brand new ensign, turned to stare at Jess after she showed up. Jess groaned internally when the alpha woman inched closer and closer to her.

 "Don't even think about it, D'Lal, or I swear on every fighter in this hangar that I will elbow you in the stomach," Jess said in a low but intense tone. "I just had to throw two jackasses out of the mess hall and I am _not_ in the mood."

 It seemed to do the trick, and the ensign shifted further away from her without trying to talk to her, but she wasn't as far away from Jess as she had been before, and Jess had a feeling that she'd try some other antics in the near future. The Captain finished up his review, and sent everyone off with an hour of extra free time before lunch, and then walked over to Jess. "Pava, you weren't at drill. You were grounded?"

 Jess saluted. "Yes, sir, sorry about that, but I've been released now." Jess noted in her periphery that Ensign D'Lal was still there, just as she'd guessed. With effort, she managed to not sigh out loud in exasperation, but it was a near thing.

 Captain Smye frowned like he didn't think Jess had really answered his question, and he opened his mouth to probably ask for more information when he froze, and this strange expression flitted over his face. He closed his mouth and stared at Jess more intently.

 Jess groaned—out loud this time—realizing that he'd just gotten a nose-full of her scent. "Oh for kriff's sake," she swore, "yes, I was in quarantine for the mandatory minimum five hours, and no, I'm not interested in anyone or anything right now except my ship, and if you kriffing start fighting over me with Ensign D'Lal over here," she said angrily, throwing a thumb over her shoulder at the surprised ensign—the alpha probably thought she'd been all sneaky about staying behind—before continuing, "then I expect you to take her to the med bay yourself. Now if you don't mind, I'm going flying."

 With that she strode off, not even bothering to see what the two alphas behind her were doing. She grabbed the spare flight suit that she kept at her ship as every pilot did in case of emergencies, threw it on, then put her helmet on and ascended to the cockpit. She was in the air less than two minutes after her last angry words to the alphas in her squadron.

 ====

 Dr. Kalonia sighed heavily and rubbed her temples when she saw Ensign D'Lal walk into the med bay with a bloody nose and sit down next to the newly-patched-up Servicemember Elmin from the cookstaff. The doctor waved one of the medical droids over to attend to the young pilot, before heading out to see if she could talk some sense into someone with authority.


	8. I know how to spot a troublemaker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alt chpt title: No one can smell me while I'm flying  
> Alt chpt title: I look forward to seeing what other trouble you make for our Jedi  
> 

Flying made everything better, Jess thought to herself as she danced through her flight maneuvers. The rest of her team was on break, and the other squads were either sleeping or on patrol, so she had nearly the entire airspace over the base to herself. She chose to fly over the lake for her practice, since out there she would be least likely to have anyone sneak into her airspace without her seeing them first. Thank all the universe that no one could smell the omega while she was in her cockpit, and so she'd spent the last couple hours in sweet bliss. She had ten minutes and then she'd have to report for patrol.

 Soon her playtime was interrupted by work, but by then Jess was feeling calm and overall happy. The Captain may have been a bit terse with her over comms, but he couldn't do anything to her as long as she followed orders, so she ignored it. A nice long shift would be a good way for her to keep busy until her mate was done with training.

 Jess smiled to herself, reminded that she had a _mate_.

 ====

 Rey was temporarily distracted during her training in the woods when she noticed an X-wing practicing maneuvers over the lake nearby—and Rey knew instantly who it was. She smiled and watched the fluid changes in the craft's motion as it danced high over the water—completely forgetting the three stones that she'd been holding aloft in the air. A throat-clearing sound behind her drew her attention back with a snap.

 "Sorry, master," Rey said, ducking her head a little.

 Luke sighed. "Well, it's not like I didn't know this was going to happen. Come, let's see how far you can get before you're distracted again." Rey blushed in embarrassment, but sure enough she only made it about 75% through the exercise before she stopped to watch the most beautiful barrel-roll and spin that she'd ever seen before.

 "She seems like a nice person," Skywalker commented lightly.

 Rey blushed a bright red and hurried through the last part of the exercise. When she set the three rocks down on the ground with a dull thunk, Luke sat himself down next to his pupil. For a moment they both watched the X-wing together.

 "So, what's she like?"

 Rey blushed brightly again, and rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably. She didn't really _know_ Jessika that well, because they had only known each other a short while and most of that time they'd spent making out and not talking. "Um ... she's sarcastic and funny," Rey started slowly, because that was at least something that she'd been able to easily pick up on from her mate. "And she's an excellent pilot," she smiled genuinely up at the fighter in the air. "And ... and she likes cuddles," Rey said the last part in a very quiet voice, hoping her master hadn't heard her.

 Luke's clear laughter ringing out through the clearing let her know that she'd failed in that attempt.

 "Well, you'll learn a lot more about her, no doubt," he said amicably. He had her do a few more exercises, where she had to try and maintain her hold on the force even when distracted by other things. Eventually Jessika's ship flew off, and Rey was sad about it, but Luke reminded her that focusing on her lessons would make the time go more quickly. Rey centered herself and tackled the next task with determination.

 ====

 The hours of patrol seemed to fly by to Jess, and it seemed too soon by the time the Captain was calling in their patrol. Surprisingly, Smye ordered her to land last, at least ten minutes behind the squadmember before her, and Jess did not begrudge the extra few minutes in the air, doing a couple low and slow sweeps off to the side of the airspace over the hangar entrance to kill time. Finally, she was given clearance to land, and as she deftly maneuvered her craft to touch down in her assigned space, Jess noticed someone out on the hangar floor approaching her ship.

 Jess popped open her cockpit and swung down to the ground, ready to shout at whoever it was to turn around and run off before the Captain got angry at them—when she saw that it was none other than General Organa herself. Swallowing, Jess lowered the hand that she had halfway raised to point threateningly, and instead stood at attention waiting for the General to reach her.

 "Nice flying today, Lieutenant Commander Pava," Leia complemented as soon as she reached the young pilot, promptly returning the younger woman's salute. "At ease."

 "Um, thank you, General," Jess said, relaxing her stiff posture slightly. General Organa motioned for Jess to walk with her, so Jess fell into step alongside.

 "I hear that you've had an exciting day today, in addition to the fancy maneuvers," Leia mentioned casually.

 Jess groaned. "Oh my god, are they still fighting, General? It's been _hours_ since I was last on the ground."

 The General snorted softly. "And yet you're still not done with the recommended quarantine time that Dr. Kalonia ordered for you."

 Refraining from groaning again, although she was sorely tempted, Jess instead simply said, "No one can smell me while I'm in the air."

 Leia nodded. "That is true."

 After walking through a few corridors, Jess noticed that they weren't heading towards any of the public areas of the base. "Are you walking me back to my quarters, General?" she asked, nose wrinkling a little in confusion.

 "Well, I figured this might be less work than having to discipline more soldiers for getting into fights."

 This time Jess did groan, and rubbed her face vigorously. "What am I going to do for food?"

 "Someone will deliver food to your quarters later."

 Jess sighed, knowing that she probably couldn't get out of this one. "Yes, General." They walked for a little while longer in silence. "General, you realize I'm probably going to be stuck in those quarters for the next 48 hours, right?" Jess tried to keep most of the glumness out of her voice, but she wasn't sure if she'd entirely succeeded.

 Leia turned to look at the pilot, eyes sparkling merrily. "From what I understand, you'll be having a pretty enjoyable time in there."

 Jess blushed furiously, and found she didn't have anything to say in response to that.

 "I just wanted to see who Rey's new mate was—she's my brother's padawan you know, so she's practically family."

 Jess swallowed and turned a little green. "Oh no ... does this mean you're going to give me the shovel talk, sir?"

 "I'm pretty sure I don't need to," General Organa replied, suddenly smiling brightly, "but if you'd like I can keep it in mind for the future."

 "I, uh, ... no, I don't think that will be necessary," Jess said hurriedly, tripping over her own tongue.

 Leia laughed. "I think you'll do just fine—I need someone to keep that mini-Jedi on her toes, and I know how to spot a troublemaker when I see one," she said in amusement, patting Jess on the shoulder.

 Jess opened and closed her mouth a couple times. "Are you saying I'm a troublemaker, General?" she asked in shock, not sure how to process that information—not that she disagreed with that assessment, but she wasn't sure if she was happy that the defacto leader of the Resistance thought that.

 "Oh, I'm not saying it—I _know_ it," Leia answered firmly. "What else would I think about a person who in the span of less than an hour sent two people to the med bay and caused disciplinary actions to be taken against twelve base personnel?"

 "Twelve??" Jess asked alarmed, choking on the word.

 Leia nodded. "Twelve. Apparently some more minor fights broke out in the mess hall after you sprayed the first two alphas down." The General shook her head. "Somehow they never learn."

 Jess felt embarrassed. "I'm sorry for the trouble, General," she said in genuine apology.

 "Don't worry about it, I'm just teasing you—you're not actually responsible for how other people behave around you. Some of these nerfherders just need to be hit over the head every so often or they won't know how to control themselves. Ah, these are your quarters, aren't they?"

 "Yes, sir. Thank you for the personal escort, General. I'm sure you've had a busy day and I appreciate you taking the time."

 "Oh stop that—like I said, I wanted an excuse to meet you, and I have to say that I'm glad I did." Leia stepped back the way they came. "I look forward to seeing what other trouble you make for our Jedi," she said by way of goodbye, eyes sparkling with mirth, and then turned and strode out of sight.

 Jess shook her head, still hardly believing that this had happened to her, and then opened the doors to her quarters.

 ====

 Rey got back to the base right around the dinner hour. Luke accompanied her to the mess hall and they took their meal together, chatting about inconsequential things—and Rey used the opportunity to ask lots of questions. The young Jedi noticed a couple people who paused as they passed Rey's table, and looked like they were thinking about sitting down with her, but Luke's presence must have deterred them. Rey was fairly certain Master Skywalker knew this and had sat with her purposefully to prevent it.

 When Luke was done with his meal and left, Finn and Poe were just arriving with Poe's squadron, and Rey happily returned their wave. They grabbed their trays and came over to sit with her, but just as they reached the bench, they hesitated. Poe rubbed at his nose as if he had an itch there, and Finn looked momentarily perplexed.

 "Are you still in rut?" Poe asked seriously.

 "I'm on suppressants," Rey replied, a little irritated at the question. It didn't make sense for her to be completely done with her rut yet—no one's rut was less than twelve hours, and it hadn't quite been that long since they'd smelled her rut next to Jessika's X-Wing that morning. She looked over at Finn, who just shrugged his shoulders. At least Finn didn't seem to be all that affected by her rut, but privately Rey wondered if that was because Finn had already _found_ his mate.

 Both men sat down at the table and promptly started tucking in. "So, did you find that scent from the other night? Is that why you went into rut?" Poe asked keeping his eyes down on his plate.

 "Yes, I found her."

 Poe's head snapped up to look at Rey. "Her?" he asked, and Rey felt her lip curl instinctively in a protective show at the sharpness of the question. Poe immediately put his hands up in a placating gesture. "But you know who it is?"

 Rey nodded. "I know who she is."

 Finn squealed in delight. "Oh Force! Who is she? Have you met her yet?"

 Before Rey could open her mouth to answer, a new voice interrupted.

 "Hey, is this seat taken?" a young soldier asked. Rey had never met her before, but the young woman looked vaguely familiar.

 Rey answered with a welcoming hand wave towards the open seat.

 "Thanks," the woman said, with a warm smile, sitting down next to Rey— _right_ next to her, so close their hips were practically touching.

 "Davi, where you running off to?" another voice said. Rey looked up to see another woman approaching the table. "Oh, hi. Mind if I sit here?" Without waiting for an answer, the newcomer sat down on Rey's other side, similarly close. Rey suddenly felt like the meat in the sandwiches that the mess hall sometimes served.

 Across the table, Rey caught sight of Poe trying and failing to contain his laughter, and Rey glared at him. When this didn't stop the Resistance pilot's laughter, she stuck her tongue out at him, and suddenly she felt the two women on either side of her pressing even closer.

 "Uh, well, it was nice to meet you, but I have to get going," Rey said, standing up quickly and reaching for her tray.

 "Oh, that's ok, let me get your tray," the first woman, Davi, said with another warm smile.

 "Um, okay."

 Just then, as if answering Rey's silent calls for help, a messenger approached the young Jedi at a trot. He handed the slip to Rey, who read it and then smiled at what she saw in the message. "Sorry ladies, Finn, Poe, but I'm needed to deliver a meal somewhere. Please enjoy your dinner." And just like that, Rey was off, smoothly evading anyone else that tried to impede her progress as she put a tray together. The few hangers-on that hadn't gotten the hint before stopped trying to follow Rey at the exit to the mess hall, and the Jedi-in-training let her long strides carry her away from everyone else—and towards her mate.

 Tomorrow they'd be officially mates, and at the thought Rey's smile lit up the whole corridor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About six-ish more chpts for this fic, so I guess this makes us past halfway now!


	9. If you keep this up we won't make it till morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alt chpt title: Jess wants Rey for dessert

The first thing Jess noticed when she walked into her quarters was the smell of food, which reminded her it'd been longer than usual since she'd last eaten. The very next thing she noticed, was that Rey was sitting on Jess' bed with a holoreader in her lap. The Jedi bounced up off the bed at Jess' entrance and pulled the pilot into a tight hug, showing Jess just how much Rey had missed her during the day today.

"Hey," Jess said, smiling.

"Hi," Rey said into Jess' hair.

Jess pulled back from the hug so she could claim Rey's lips in an enthusiastic kiss, resting her forehead against the Jedi's when she broke for air. "I missed you today," she said softly.

Rey peppered Jess' face with kisses. "I saw you flying."

Jess leaned back so she could study Rey's face. "Did you? Do you know which X-wing is mine already?" she asked, with a mixture of amusement and surprise.

"I'd know you anywhere—I can sense you," Rey answered seriously, lifting one hand up to rest it over Jess' heart.

The pilot responded with another passionate kiss, but Jess' stomach rumbled, interrupting the mood and reminding the omega not to get too carried away—there were would be time for that after they ate. With regret, Jess disentangled herself from her flushed Jedi—Jess knew that she looked probably just as flushed after all that kissing—and asked, "So what did you bring me?"

Rey, taking the cue, stepped over to the tray on Jess' desk. "A little bit of everything. I wasn't sure what you'd like."

"That's a lot of food. Is it for both of us?" Jess asked, plopping herself down in her desk chair, the only place to sit in the room besides the bed (or the desk and sidetable, if you were Jess and didn't care about the intended purpose of a piece of furniture as long as it held your weight). The room was a pretty utilitarian single officer's quarters, so there was only really furniture inside for one person—Jess would need to put in a request later to be upgraded to a double. Although, Jess thought wonderingly, a request might already be in the works if the General had gotten herself involved.

"I already ate, so I'm not really hungry, but I'll probably pick at a few things later," Rey said, clearing her throat a little with the last word.

Jess understood the implication immediately. "Oh, you mean after you work up an appetite," the pilot responded in a teasing voice. When Rey blushed brightly and rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, Jess laughed.

"Well, I'm starving, so I'm going to just start eating if you don't mind seeing me messily shovel food in my mouth," Jess said, rolling her chair up to the tray on the desk and grabbing a utensil. Balancing her food inhalation with as much conversation as she could without being gross about it, she asked questions of her mate, about Rey's day and training, trying to get her mate to run the conversation so she could mostly involve her mouth with the food.

It wasn't like Jedi training was all that fascinating—it was interesting, but there were only so many times you could talk about meditating and have it be interesting—but mostly Jess just really loved hearing her mate's voice. Honestly, the young Jedi could probably read from the engine parts inventory for the base and Jess would still hang on every word she said.

And _god_ Jess was so hungry she could eat Rey. Well, Jess thought to herself, she was definitely going to eat Rey in addition to this overflowing tray of food. She looked over at her mate and ran her eyes up and down Rey's well-muscled form. She shoveled more food into her mouth, eager to get to dessert.

====

Rey paused in telling Jessika about her recent training exercises, noting the hungry look her mate was giving her. "Oh," Rey said, swallowing. Suddenly she felt the need to have some kind of physical contact, so she scooted closer over to the edge of the bed so she could reach out and rest a hand on Jessika's thigh.

Jessika rumbled in approval and rolled her chair a little closer so she could lean against Rey while she continued eating. Rey picked up her story again, rubbing little circles absently into the omega's leg. Despite the pilot's claims that somehow watching her eat would be gross, Rey could only see a hungry person—a hungry _omega_ , who also happened to be her mate—and found that watching Jessika eat was actually comforting. After living so much of her life where food was scarce and hard-fought, Rey could never see a person eating as gross or something needing to be hidden. Even messy eaters didn't bother Rey, and Rey had seen far messier eaters than Jessika.

Sitting there next to her mate, Rey only wanted to be closer to her, but didn't want to distract Jessika from eating, so Rey gradually found herself instead lightly touching her mate more and more as she talked about her day and some of her experiences, running her other hand up and down Jessika's back. Rey was just considering getting up and wedging herself between the omega's back and the back of the chair, when Jessika pushed her tray back and wiped at her mouth and hands thoroughly with the handcloth.

"Ok." Jessika met Rey's eyes with an intense look, and Rey felt herself still at the heat in the Resistance pilot's gaze. "I'm way too full to have sex right now, and we're not supposed to yet anyway, but I need you. Right now." Jessika slapped the handcloth down on the desk and stood up determinedly, promptly pushing Rey backwards onto the bed and climbing onto her, growling a bit as she went.

"Oh," Rey said softly, eyes wide. Heat surged through the Jedi's body as her mate settled on top of her, and Rey flushed bright red, rumbling in pleasure.

Jessika's hands and mouth found Rey's neck and shoulders, and soon she was pulling Rey's shirt up and off. The smaller pilot attacked Rey's shoulders and neck with nips and pleased growls, moaning when her roaming hands found Rey's abs. Running her hands over the defined muscles there with firm strokes, Jessika growled again, this time possessively, into Rey's neck.

" _Mine_ ," the omega said emphatically, and then then took Rey's neck into her teeth, holding it in a firm grip.

" _Yours_ ," Rey gave the required response automatically, gasping. Her hips bucked upwards into Jessika's body when the smaller woman put her teeth to Rey's neck, the Jedi moaning.

Jessika growled in pleasure in response, and Rey could feel the spike of arousal affecting her, tightening the crotch of her pants as her body started trying to shift.

"Mate," Rey said, half-moaning and half-gasping, "if you keep this up then we won't make it till morning." Rey's hips bucked upwards again without her control, and the Jedi put her hands on Jessika's hips to hold them against hers, right where Rey wanted them.

====

Jess hummed in consideration, and finally released her grip on her mate's neck. She looked down at Rey underneath her, seeing how her attentions had Rey squirming slightly and panting. Jess felt pleased with herself, but knew that Rey was right and that they should stop—it was supposed to be painful for an alpha on suppressants if they tried to shift for sex. The few times that Jess herself had become aroused while on suppressants, it had made her feel dizzy and slightly nauseated. That had also happened to her this morning—had it only been this morning? It felt so long ago—although while she was sucking on her mate's neck it had been easier to ignore.

But Jess didn't really want to stop entirely—her mate tasted and smelled too good—so instead she compromised and simply slowed way down, trailing soft kisses and caresses over Rey's incredibly well-sculpted and sexy body. Rey likewise toned down her attentions, although the little noises she made as they continued their make-out cuddles shot sparks of heat through Jess' body, and the pilot had to fight the desire to speed up again. Eventually, they fell asleep like that, limbs tangled with each other and the bedding.

====

Rey woke early, like she always did, like she had to do for her training. It took her a moment to understand her surroundings. She was in Jessika's bed, and the softly breathing warmth next to her was Jessika—and the amazing scent making it hard for her to think and making her own body grow heated was _also_ Jessika. The very air seemed to caress Rey's body, and the Jedi could feel her body's reaction to the smell. It was a muted reaction, since Rey still had some time to go before the effects of her suppressant entirely wore off, but Jessika ... Jessika's suppressants had obviously already worn off.

The very proof of her mate's readiness permeated the air and made Rey's nose twitch—and other parts of her twitch, too. Rey didn't need to look at the time to know that it was roughly the same time she'd gotten up the day before, so she guessed she probably had to wait an hour, give or take, before she would be ready as well.

So, rather than rubbing her hands over her mate and waking the omega up like her hands itched to do, Rey concentrated on trying to control her breathing. She went through a few of her mental exercises from Jedi training until she felt calm enough to try sleeping. Rey settled herself into the pillows and let Jessika's gentle breathing gradually lull her back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hear ye, hear ye, the smut (finally) cometh. Prepare yourselves.


	10. Desire awoken (smut)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been trying to keep the POV of the two mates somewhat distinct, but there is a section here during the more wild part of the sex scene that is mixed POV between the two. Sorry in advance if it gets confusing!

Jess normally woke up slowly and very begrudgingly, always clutching at that last little bit of sleep that remained and refusing to let it go until her alarm violently yanked her to wakefulness. This morning however, Jess drifted up to the surface on clouds of heat and want. Even before she opened her eyes, Jess was unbelievably aroused and she stretched sinuously against the sheets that had wrapped around her as she slept.

Finding something warm and heavy holding her down against the bed reminded Jess that one of those 'sheets' was an unbelievably sexy woman. A woman who was her mate, and _in her bed_. Opening her eyes to look at her mate, Jess pulled Rey tight against her body, and _growled_.

====

Rey felt Jessika stirring and woke, turning sleepily towards her mate in genuine pleasure, feeling the heat inside her spike at her mate's touch as Jessika wriggled against her. Rey opened her mouth to say good morning, but then Jessika turned and opened her eyes—and all the breath suddenly seemed to be sucked from Rey's body at the heat of Jessika's gaze.

Jessika growled and pressed herself against Rey, and the alpha's desire spiked strongly—specifically between Rey's legs. Never before in her life had the young Jedi shifted and gotten hard so quickly, and her throbbing desire was now pressed very firmly against Jessika hip. The omega rolled her lower body against Rey, and the alpha's instant resulting urge to climb on top of her mate and claim her was narrowly avoided—and only because Jessika bit down on Rey's neck, directly over the scent glands, right where a mating bite would go.

Rey's entire body went limp—well, except for the part of her still pressed into Jessika's hip—and she let herself be the object of her mate's every whim, making pleased moans at her omega's attentions. They had never bothered putting Rey's shirt on before they'd fallen asleep the night before, and Jessika's hands immediately went to the wrap covering the Jedi's breasts, palming them through the cloth. Rey's hips bucked into her mate, rubbing and grinding against her, and the pilot twisted to get that friction between her legs where she wanted it most. The omega cried out as soon as Rey's hard cock made contact with her crotch, muffled against the alpha's skin that she was still gripping tightly with her teeth. Jessika's hands began tugging at the wraps around Rey's chest, and soon worried them loose.

Pulling the cloth away impatiently, the Resistance pilot pushed her mate over onto her back and straddled her, grinding down into her mate's tented pants and kneading the Jedi's now freed breasts. Rey moaned and bucked lightly underneath her, holding mostly still in her omega's bite. Jessika, wanting to taste more of her mate's body, released the Jedi's neck with a warning nip to remain still, and then wriggled herself down Rey's chest so she could take one of the alpha's nipples into her mouth.

The Jedi called out the omega's name and only found out that she had been fisting the sheets when she tried to thread her fingers in Jessika's hair. Freeing a hand from its grip on the sheets, she wrapped a hand around the back of the pilot's head to hold her there, and the other hand came up over Jessika's ass to press the omega down as Rey bucked once desperately upward. She had never before wanted so badly to be inside someone as she want to be inside her mate right at that very moment.

Jessika's hands started to grab at the alpha's waistband, tugging it downward, and Rey lifted herself up off the bed and moved a hand to assist, although she somehow couldn't make herself stop holding Jessika's mouth to her chest—the omega was nibbling and sucking and biting and the Jedi already felt like she couldn't hold back. They wrestled Rey's pants off her legs and then worked at the omega's, slightly hampered by their mutual desire to not stop Jessika's attentions to the alpha's breasts.

When they eventually got the omega's pants off, Jessika finally released Rey's nipple and scooted up further on her mate's body. Rey could feel the wetness of her mate's vagina against her stomach and moaned, instinctively trying to guide her cock there with jerky uncoordinated thrusts. Then Jessika reached a hand back and took hold of Rey's hard cock, and pushed herself onto it.

====

Both mates cried out in pleasure as soon as the tip of Rey's cock made contact with Jess' thoroughly wet entrance, and the alpha's hips bucked involuntarily several times, pressing her shaft more deeply into the thoroughly slicked folds. Jess cried out in pleasure at the hardness and stretch, and started pushing herself downward rhythmically, desperate to get more of her mate inside her before either of them came—and the omega was already right on the edge.

"Inside!" Jess moaned, and the alpha responded immediately, pumping deeply into her mate. Rey was only just barely holding on and the pilot could sense her mate's climax building impossibly fast. With the Jedi moaning and bucking underneath her, neck bared and sweaty, Jess instinctively knew what she needed to do as they rapidly approached climax. She pressed her open mouth to Rey's neck, directly over the scent glands, and as they both crashed over the edge, the omega bit down.

====

Rey screamed as her orgasm hit, arching up off the bed with both hands on Jessika's hips, pulling the omega down firmly onto her as she shot ropes of come inside her mate's body. She pushed her thickness rhythmically into her mate, feeling the omega's tight core clench all around her, milking more pleasure out of their orgasms.

After an eternity of moans and shudders and gasps, Jess released her hold on Rey's neck with her teeth, and began licking the mating bite mark to soothe it. There was more pleasure than pain from the bite, the omega could tell from her mate's reactions, but it gave Jess a deep feeling of caring for her mate to lave the bite and soothe whatever pain might be there.

Rey slowly surfaced from the ocean of pleasure, still twitching and squirting inside her mate. She could feel Jessika's attentions to her neck, and it was like a layer of warm care laid on top of the still-buzzing aftereffects of their explosive orgasms. Gradually the omega's hands and mouth started wandering, and the Jedi found she was still rock-hard inside her mate, even though she was no longer squirting, so Rey started to slowly pump in and out. They had come too fast to do much of that the first time, so the alpha made it a point to thrust in long even strokes, enjoying the tightness and wetness of her mate.

Jess moaned with each thrust, and her hands shifted to grip Rey's hair tightly, moving her hips to match her mate's thrusts. Amazingly, despite the mind-blowing first orgasm—or orgasms? Jess wasn't sure how many of them there had been, it was sort of a whirlwind of mind-blowing pleasure—the omega could feel herself already moving towards climax again. She called out for her alpha and began to move more forcefully.

Sensing her mate's closeness to orgasm, the alpha angled her hips to thrust more deeply, bottoming out inside her mate. Jessika's cries increased in pitch, and the Jedi moaned every time she felt her mate's shivering inner walls envelope her entirely. Rey shifted one hand lower, cupping the underside of the omega's ass to rest her fingers against the edge of Jessika's entrance, feeling herself thrusting deeply inside. Pulling with her fingers, Rey spread her mate open a little wider so she could press into Jessika as deeply as possible.

That was it for Jess, and not two thrusts later she went screaming over the edge into another orgasm. She writhed on top of her mate, who quickly followed her, panting and moaning and mouthing at the omega's neck and shoulders and jaw.

Jess wasn't sure if she fell asleep or blacked out or was just too distracted, but the next thing she was aware of were Rey's fingers rubbing soothing circles into her back—and the Jedi's other hand teasing gently at the lips of her vagina, where the alpha was still inside her. She moaned softly, and felt Rey's smile against her neck. Jess' voice sounded a little rough and scratchy, like she had just screamed out multiple orgasms—which she of course had.

"Doing okay there?" Rey asked, checking in. Jessika hummed an affirmation and Rey chuckled.

"Better than okay," Jess confirmed scratchily. "Much better." She hummed again and shifted as the alpha's slowly circling hand on her back shifted to something lower and more arousing, and the touches at her entrance grew more adventurous. She moaned softly when Rey's cock twitched inside her, and she noticed that the alpha was still extremely hard—the thought triggered a new gush of wetness in her folds.

Rey rumbled underneath her in pleasure, feeling her mate's new release. "You ready for another round?" she asked, her voice dropping an octave and doing exhilarating things to Jess' insides.

"Baby, I'm ready to do this for the next twenty-four to fourty-eight hours," the omega said, moaning again and making an obvious reference to the average time for mating cycles.

Rey growled in arousal and pumped in and out slowly. "Good," she said, voice still sexily deep and growly. "Can I roll you over? I sort of want to come in from behind." She dropped her other hand to Jessika's entrance and with both hands on either side of where she was still buried inside her mate, she pressed firmly inwards and upwards against the omega's ass as a demonstration of her desires.

Jess arched her back and moaned. By way of answer, she lifted up off Rey's body, letting the alpha's shaft slide out of her, and laid herself face down on the bed. The Jedi growled again and popped upright to take position over her with alacrity, her hard length pressed up against the pilot's inner thigh. She put both hands on the underside of Jessika's ass and kneaded it, slowly and firmly, watching in awe as the movement opened the omega up further. Jess whined and tilted her ass up invitingly, needing to feel her mate inside her again.

Rey made a desperate noise at the sight of her mate straining underneath her, and wasted no time sliding back inside. The tight wetness somehow felt even better than before, and the alpha knew she wasn't going to last long like this. Moaning loudly, Rey started sliding in and out with strong, slow strokes, pressing in firmly at the end of each one. Jessika was moaning and squirming underneath her, hands fisting into the sheets, but the Jedi wanted to make sure that her mate would come before she did, so as the omega arched backwards into her Rey pressed her mouth into Jessika's neck over her scent glands. The spot was right where the mating bite would go, and the alpha bit down to hold on tightly with her teeth.

Jess' reaction was immediate and loud—she cried out wordlessly and thrust her hips up and backwards, pressing herself hard onto the alpha's cock. Rey moaned around her mouthful of omega and began thrusting hard and deep into Jessika, feeling her mate's inner walls quivering around her as the pilot rapidly approached climax. The Jedi could feel Jessika getting tighter around her cock as Rey's knot formed, and she pressed herself against the curve of her mate's ass, nudging the omega's legs further apart so she could get as deep as she possibly could before she fully knotted.

Jess toppled over the edge into orgasm as she felt Rey grow thicker and press more deeply inside. With Jessika writhing underneath her, the alpha wrapped her arms around her mate and held on tightly to hold her in place as she desperately pushed her knot inside, still gripping the omega's neck with her teeth. Finally Rey felt her knot slide fully inside—she instinctively knew that it was time, and bit down hard into Jessika's skin as she crashed over the edge. A swirling storm of pure pleasure overwhelmed her, and the Jedi blacked out.


	11. A yawning hunger (post-heat)

A repeated annoying sound slowly drew Jess to wakefulness, and, with her eyes still closed, she tried to understand her existence through the fuzzy and warm daze that still surrounded her. She felt tired but amazing, with something like happiness buzzing all throughout her body. She could still feel her mate's weight and heat on her back, and some pleasurable sensation at her neck—that was the mating bite, her subconsciousness supplied. A slow smile spread across her face as she thought about Rey giving her a mating bite.

Another sound, less annoying this time, interrupted her fuzzy contemplations, and this time she opened her eyes, blinking to see what was going on. Rey still held her with the mating bite, so the movement of her head to see what was going on was limited, but Jess could see in her periphery someone moving stuff around in her quarters. Jess made an incoherent noise and flipped the edge of blanket out of the way that was partially obscuring her vision, revealing a med droid and a pheromone mask-wearing Dr. Kalonia setting bottles of something on one of Jess' side tables. Jess made another noise that sounded like a query, and the doctor noticed that she was awake.

"Ah, we know you probably won't have enough presence of mind to send for food from the mess, so these protein shakes will keep you hydrated and relatively fed until you come out of your mating. Honestly, these should have been left here last night, but there was a mix up with the orders." Kalonia humphed in disapproval, obviously not happy that that had been missed the day before. Then the doctor's attention came to rest on Jess and her mate, and Dr. Kalonia's mouth twitched. "Don't let her maintain that hold for longer than an hour. It's not good for either of you."

Jess pondered that for a moment. She didn't know how much time had passed, but judging by the slight burning and straining sensation it wouldn't have surprised her if they'd already spent an hour like that. The omega reached back with a gentle hand and nudged Rey's mouth until the Jedi's grip on her neck loosened and let her go. Despite being almost entirely unconscious still, Rey's instincts kicked in and she started laving the bite on her mate's neck, purring softly. Kalonia snorted and said something that sounded suspiciously like "that's what I thought", and then she bustled around the room with purpose before leaving, shooing the med droid out of the room in front of her.

With her newly restored freedom of movement, Jess looked around the room to take stock, finding that her side table next to the bed had been scooted out to a spot more easily-reachable from the bed, and also her desk had been pulled out to a similar position at the other end of the bed. Both surfaces were similarly laden with sealed bottles of protein shake. Jess briefly thought about grabbing one of the bottles, feeling a bit hungry, but she was distracted when Rey, no longer able to reach the bite to lave it, nuzzled into Jess' neck until the omega tilted her head with a sigh. Eyes still closed, Rey resumed clumsily laving and kissing at the bite mark now that she'd been given access, continuing to purr.

Under these pleasant ministrations, Jess relaxed, sinking down into the bed as her mate took care of her. Soon enough, Jess felt her eyes drifting shut again.

====

Rey came awake, blinking, trying to clear away the hazy sex-crazed feeling that had been so overwhelming the last few times she'd woken up. She felt like maybe her rut had retreated now, and she could tell from her mate's scent that Jessika's heat had broken too. Rey found herself on her back, with the omega sprawled on top of her, breathing evenly in sleep. The Jedi knew they had woken and had sex several times, but she had no idea how long it had been between each time, and she couldn't even really remember how many times that had happened.

There had been some kind of liquid food that Jess had called 'shakes' involved, Rey blearily remembered, which weren't too bad but weren't exactly the most filling thing. That had ended up being somewhat of a good thing though, because it meant that they could immediately jump back into wild, energetic sex without having to worry about full stomachs.

Trying to turn her head without disturbing Jessika, Rey looked around the room in an attempt to get a sense of the time, but her mate's quarters had no windows to the outside of the base (not unusual in Resistance bases) to give her a sense of outside light. There was a blinking light coming from somewhere near the floor, which Rey guessed meant that Jessika's communicator had fallen down behind the bed or off the desk during their bouts of sex—possibly that had been from the time they'd hastily swept things off the desk before Rey had sat Jessika on top of it

Frowning, the Jedi closed her eyes and stretched out with the force, trying to figure out the time or date that way. Nothing really gave her a sense of the time, except that it seemed that the public areas of the base were quiet so it could be night, but there weren't many people sleeping in their bunks, so Rey guessed it was probably daytime but during a lull. Jessika shifted and muttered in her sleep, and the alpha's arms automatically came up to wrap around her mate, kissing the side of her head. The omega made a cute grunting sound, and nuzzled into Rey's neck.

Rey stifled her giggles in reaction, trying to not wake up her mate yet. Eventually, the Jedi slowly managed to roll Jessika over onto her side so she could carefully extricate herself from the tangle of limbs and blankets on the bed. Rey was still completely naked, but she caught sight of some of her clothes on the floor—where they must have landed after being flung off during sex—so she should have something halfway decent to wear. The young Jedi definitely needed a shower though, Rey thought as she sniffed at herself.

Luckily Jessika was high enough ranking that she had en-suite full bathroom, so Rey walked somewhat stiffly into it and to the shower to start the water running. After checking several times to make sure that she wasn't disturbing her mate, the young Jedi hopped in the shower and had a long, hot soak, trying to return to being a fully sentient human being and not just a mobile ball of sex drive. Not that she would _really_ mind if she simply stayed in here for the rest of her days doing nothing but making passionate love to her mate—and the thought made her body twitch as if trying to shift again.

Sighing, Rey finally turned off the water, and started the process of drying off and then hunting for clothes. The alpha found her clothes more or less unharmed by their escapades—but also discovered the drawers where Jessika kept her clothes as she was searching. Wanting to have something touching her skin from her mate, she pulled out a loose shirt and put it on. Rey ended up deciding to wear her own pants, knowing that having something from her mate wrapped around her crotch would probably have meant the Jedi would have to walk around the base all day with a permanent hard-on.

A shirt also had the benefit of being easily and mostly unobtrusively sniffed so she could catch a whiff of her mate's scent, which the alpha did, lifting up the collar and inhaling deeply. Of course, nothing was as good as the source, and Rey leaned down to gently nose at her mate's cheek, trying not to wake Jessika but needing some skin-to-skin contact. The young Jedi did a last scan around the room to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. It seemed someone had already come by to take their unfinished tray of food away at some point during their heat-rut, because Rey didn't see it anywhere in the room as she looked around. There were a lot fewer empty shake bottles than she remembered, too.

Thus prepared, Rey softly kissed her mate's hand and then stepped out into the corridor. She was surprised to find that the door had been outfitted with some kind of special seal on the outside, probably to keep their heat-rut scents from spilling out into the public walkways. The Jedi-in-training saw very few people walking around, but it didn't _feel_ like the middle of the night. The ones she passed in the hallways didn't seem to recoil or react as strongly as before to her scent, so she could guess that at least her rut was definitely over.

Rey set off to in the direction of the mess hall, feeling a yawning hunger for some real, non-liquid food, and hoping that her rut wouldn't still be a problem. It wasn't like the young alpha really _kn_ _ew_ all that much about ruts. Kalonia had had to sit down and talk to Rey about the basics of ruts and how they were handled in the resistance (either quarantined with or without a partner, or with suppressants) back when she'd first come onto base and had a complete medical review, which was standard procedure for new arrivals. The doctor also had also given the young Jedi the basic details on heats, and at one point she looked like she'd wanted to say more—but then she moved some things around on her desk before asking Rey some questions to see if the Jedi had understood, then let Rey go on her way.

Much of what she covered had been things that Master Skywalker hadn't, but the young Jedi-in-training had understood why—it was already rather embarrassing talking about this stuff with Dr. Kalonia, let alone her Jedi mentor. That kind of awkwardness with someone she had to work with every day was probably best just avoided.


	12. This affection-starved bantha pup that calls herself my mate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alt chpt title 1: "Poe, I want _that_."  
> Alt chpt title 2: Open wide, baby

Feeling a little disoriented still from the sense of being out of time—and also at least a little bit from not having her mate nearby, which was a new and strange sensation—Rey wandered into the mess hall. When she got inside she saw it was fairly empty, but as she walked up to the counter, a voice called out her name.

"Rey!"

The Jedi turned around to see Finn and Poe rushing up to her, looking both happy and surprised to see her. "Rey, you're back! Where have you been? You just disappeared, and no one would say where you were," Poe said.

"I even asked Luke Skywalker himself where you were," Finn added, "and all he would say was something about 'learning how to be her best self', which sounded like some mystical Jedi training thing."

"And what happened with your rut? And _kriff_ , what happened with your _mate_?" Poe asked, leaning forward excitedly. "Did you finally meet her? Are you mated now?"

Rey's face went through an interesting string of expressions as she heard what her mentor said. To answer Poe's question though, she first looked around to make sure no one was watching too closely, and then pulled down the collar of her shirt to show off the obvious mating bite just above her collarbone.

Finn clapped both hands over his mouth and squealed in glee, and Poe's reaction was similarly excited, although not as loud. "Oh Force!" Poe whisper-shouted. "You did! You did find her. Oh gods Rey, who is it??"

"Well, I haven't exactly talked to her about it yet, everything's still pretty new for us, so I'm not going to tell you until I talk to her about it first," Rey said in a low voice, pulling them off to the side where no one was sitting.

"But you were just with her, weren't you? Oh kriff!" Finn exclaimed, the realization hitting him just then. "You were with your mate this _whole time_??"

"Well, it's not like we were really doing a lot of talking," Rey said, partly defensively, partly exasperated, and partly embarrassed.

"I bet not," Poe said, wiggling an eyebrow at Rey and elbowing her lightly in the side, the Jedi batting his arm away.

Finn, for his part, still looked a bit dazed. "But, wow ... I mean, this whole time? Is that how heats work? Or ruts?"

Poe stilled for a moment, and frowned at Finn in a mixture of confusion and concern. "Finn ... have you never had a heat before?"

Shaking his head, Finn said, "No, never—no storm trooper is allowed to have heats or ruts. I didn't even know I was an omega till I got here." He paused thoughtfully. "But Dr. Kalonia says that the drugs and implants that they put in my system should be clearing out soon—within a few more weeks she says."

Rey noted the look of quickly hidden excitement that passed over Poe's face and grinned. She cleared her throat and then ushered them over towards the food. "Force, I'm starving. Have you two eaten yet?"

Poe chuckled, saying, "Rey, it's like two hours after breakfast hour—yeah, we ate already."

"I could probably eat something," Finn said thoughtfully, rubbing at his stomach, and Poe promptly reached for a tray to hand to him. Rey thought they couldn't be any more obvious and it was adorable.

"So is today your rest day?" she asked, scooping some eggs onto her plate.

"Yeah, I put in a request to the General to have my rest day moved to be the same as Finn's—I was really surprised that it was approved so quickly," Poe said, holding up various favorites one at a time to Finn for a nod or headshake before adding them to the former storm trooper's tray.

They made their way down the counter, Rey scooping up basically everything, and by the time they reached the end Finn had a good assortment of snacks and the Jedi's tray was so overfilled that she had to hold the top with the force to keep things from falling off. They went back to the unoccupied corner of the mess to sit and chatted casually while they ate. Rey was starting to feel a little itchy, like she was missing something, but she tried to ignore the feeling in favor of quickly getting some food in her. She was pretty sure she'd need to get back to Jessika soon though.

After a bit, a familiar voice called out a greeting to Rey. Turning, she saw one of the omegas from the other day that had introduced herself and had sat down next to the alpha, but whose name was escaping her for the moment. The Jedi smiled politely in welcome and greeted the other woman.

"Rey, where have you been? I thought you'd forgotten about me."

"Forget about you? How could I do that?" Rey asked, unable to comprehend what the soldier was talking about and her confusion apparent in her expression and voice.

Before anyone could say anything else, the Jedi felt like something was calling out to her in worry, and she whipped her head around, trying to track the source. It steadily grew stronger, and the flavor of it was familiar, somehow reminding her of the notes in Jessika's scent. The feeling was moving quickly through the base corridors towards the entrance to the mess hall. Rey stood up from the table, ignoring the questions from the others, and rushed toward the doors and out into the halls, seeking out that familiar feeling.

Jessika appeared around a corner in front of her, and without slowing her trot the Resistance pilot jumped straight into Rey's arms, wrapping her limbs around her mate. "You weren't there when I woke up," she said, trying to catch her breath against the alpha's cheek.

Rey made soothing noises and held her mate. "I got really hungry, and I didn't want to wake you up by staying in the room."

Jessika made a half-frustrated, half-exasperated noise, and tucked her head into the Jedi's neck.

"Are you hungry? Come on, let's get you fed," Rey said, turning and carrying the omega back towards the mess, Jessika still with her arms and legs wrapped around the Jedi's chest and hips. Without really looking around much, Rey navigated the tables in the mess hall till she reached the one she was sharing with Poe and Finn, her attention still almost entirely focused on her mate. She sat them down on the bench so that Jessika ended up in her lap and then spun around to face the table, her mate still in her lap.

Hands now freed up from having to hold her, Rey ran her hands over Jessika's hair, face, arms, and back, as if checking to make sure she was all there and all okay, even though her Force senses had already determined that her mate wasn't hurt, and that she'd just been worried.

Jessika grunted adorably under her ministrations. "Rey, we're in the middle of the mess hall," she protested, although she made no move to stop the Jedi's hands or wriggle out of her mate's lap.

Rey hummed but didn't pause in her attentions, adding in some kisses to Jessika's hair and cheeks for good measure. It wasn't _her_ fault that her mate was so cute.

"Jess," Poe said happily in greeting. Taking her eyes off her mate momentarily to glance up, Rey could see that Poe's face was split wide in a blinding smile, like he was so happy to see her—the Jedi certainly felt the same way.

"Hi Poe," Jessika said with a supremely contented sigh, turning slightly in Rey's arms to look across the table. "I see you've already met this affection-starved bantha pup that calls herself my mate."

"I have indeed," Poe said, his smile not diminishing in the slightest.

"Congratulations," Finn said, sounding overwhelmed but thrilled. He kept glancing at Poe. "Is this how mates normally act?" he asked in a whisper that nonetheless carried across the whole table.

"Hmmm," Poe said, grinning mischievously. "This is a little on the extreme side, but yes, basically like this."

"Wow," Finn said, sounding awed, and Jessika threw pieces of hashbrowns at both of them.

The omega pilot looked like she was thinking about throwing more food at Poe, but then was distracted by the smell of food under her nose and looked down. "Force, you got enough food to feed an army, Rey."

The Jedi looked up from her attentions to her mate, and then shrugged, returning to peppering kisses up and down the omega's face and neck. "I was hungry." Absently Rey noticed that the other omega whose name she hadn't remembered must have walked off at some point, probably when she had run off to get Jessika, because she didn't see her anymore. The Jedi alpha couldn't find it in herself to be too worried about it though, not while her mate was in her arms and taking up all of her attention.

Jessika disentangled herself from her mate so she could turn around the rest of the way and face the table, still in Rey's lap, and grabbed a bite of eggs and bacon. She groaned in pleasure. "Ohh, this hits the spot."

Rey growled lightly at Jessika and nipped at the back of her mate's shoulder.

Making a contented noise, the omega asked, "Why weren't you like this this morning while we were still in bed?"

"You were asleep."

"Didn't seem to stop you like all of last night," Jessika snarked back.

"You have to get some sleep sometime."

Another voice broke in, reminding Rey that there were other people at the table. "Oh my force, are they _snarking_ at each other lovingly? Is this your version of pillowtalk, Pava?"

Jessika snorted. "You know me, Dameron—I am _always_ ready to snark."

"Oh gods, Jess, were you snarking at her _while_ you were mating??" Poe asked, simultaneously horrified and amused.

Jessika replied, "We weren't exactly talking much," at the same time that Rey said, around a mouthful of Jessika's ear, "Yes."

"Rey!" the omega exclaimed, sounding scandalized.

"What?" the Jedi asked, still not removing her hands or mouth from her mate. "I told you I find all of you adorable. I wasn't lying."

Jessika gasped slightly when Rey started nibbling on the back of her neck. "Rey," Jessika said again, this time with a hint of warning.

Poe snickered from across the table. "I think you meant to say _delicious_ instead of adorable."

"Ok, that too," Rey said, her eyes having mostly fallen closed as she mouthed at her mate's soft skin.

Jessika twisted around, grabbing a spoon in one hand and Rey's cheek with the other, and lifted her mate's head up off her neck. "Ok I think we need some edible distraction that is not me—open wide, baby."

Rey opened her mouth as ordered, and accepted the spoonful of eggs.

"Now, you have to keep one hand on your utensil at all times," Jessika said, forcing the spoon into Rey's hand, "and some food in your mouth until we finish breakfast, otherwise we are going to be giving everyone in the mess hall a show and I'm not exactly an exhibitionist."

"What's an exhibitionist?" Rey asked around her mouthful of food. She tried to bury her face back into Jessika's shoulder, but the omega took Rey's chin in her hand and gently but firmly redirected her back towards the food tray. Jessika scooted over so that way only her legs were still in the Jedi's lap, and Rey rumbled her disapproval.

"Later," Jessika said, referring to the disapproved rumble, then answered the Jedi's question. "Exhibitionists like to have sex in public places." By now the omega pilot seemed to have gotten used to Rey's tendency to ask lots of questions, offering a definition without pausing to think about it.

Rey blinked in surprise, chewing another bite of breakfast. "That's a thing?"

"Yes, that's a thing—although not exactly _my_ thing."

Rey rumbled thoughtfully—and Jessika caught her again before she could try to nuzzle her mate's hair, again redirecting her to the food. The Jedi decided to just give in, and started shoveling breakfast into her mouth with her usual determined zeal. With all of Jessika under her hands for the last few minutes, and smelling her mate, Rey found herself getting harder—and right against the omega's leg where Jessika was pressing firmly into her crotch. The Jedi alpha rumbled again.

"I'm going to have to carry you back to the room when we're done," Rey informed her mate, after she'd swallowed the bite of eggs in her mouth.

Her omega lifted an eyebrow at her. "I am _very_ aware," Jessika replied, and the Jedi-in-training smiled broadly, returning to her food.

Finn seemed to be whispering questions to Poe on the other side of the table, but Rey was only giving them a little of her attention, distracted as she was by her mate and the food.

Jessika was apologizing for something—maybe their lack of attention?—to Finn and Poe. "I'm really sorry about that. We're probably going to be like this for another day or so, though."

"It's fine," Poe said, dismissing her worries with a wave.

"Is it ... how is it?" Finn asked, seeming simultaneously worried and interested.

"Finn, it's _amazing_ ," Jessika answered with feeling, "although sometimes frustrating or confusing or annoying, just because you have to try and plan everything out so you don't pass out from hunger or get dehydrated. But mostly just amazing."

"Wow," Finn said, awed and hopeful.

"Don't you worry, buddy," Poe said with a squeeze to his shoulder. "You're going to have someone take good care of you, because you're incredible and you deserve it."

The mutual looks of adoration on their faces were almost enough to make Rey stop eating to comment— _almost_.

Jessika laughed just then though, and suddenly the Jedi-in-training could look nowhere else. "Yeah, I bet," the omega pilot said, voice laden with meaning.

Still staring fixedly at her mate, the Jedi pushed herself back from the table and set her utensil down. She was pretty full now although not stuffed, and suddenly she had a _need_ to be close to her mate. Jessika noticed Rey's look and flushed, setting her utensil down as well.

Clearing her throat, Jessika said, "Speaking of taking good care of someone, I believe my mate wants to carry me back to our room now." She stood up from the bench. "It was good to actually see you both in the barely thirty minutes that we've been outside my quarters—next time we see you might be tomorrow."

Rey needed no other invitation, and she stood up and promptly scooped Jessika into her arms in a bridal carry, the omega squeaking in surprise.

"You're not hiding your, um, arousal when you carry me like this," Jessika reminded her in a low voice, blushing lightly, their faces close together.

Rey blinked, looking down at herself around the omega in her arms to see what Jessika was referring to, considering—the Jedi's pants were very clearly tented—before she shrugged and just strode from the mess hall.

The last thing Rey caught before she left the hall was Finn saying, "Poe, I want _that_."


	13. Only with my mate

Hours later, they were getting dressed to leave their quarters again—although they kept getting distracted with kissing and caresses—so they could show up for dinner mess. Just as they were finally out in the hallway with the doors to their quarters closing behind them however, a messenger arrived and said that they were both required to report to the medbay. Sighing, they changed directions and headed for medical, knowing Dr. Kalonia wouldn't stop at coming to fetch them from the mess in the middle of their dinner if they didn't show up beforehand.

Standing there waiting for the doc to finish up with her previous patient, Jess was feeling a little antsy from not having Rey's skin under her hands, so she reached up and took her mate's hand, sliding a hand up the Jed's forearm so she could wrap a hand around it. Rey smiled at her and nosed Jess' cheek, stepping closer to the shorter pilot. After a while, even having a hand wrapped around the alpha's forearm wasn't enough, so she stepped around to Rey's front and snaked a hand up under the hem of her mate's shirt and splayed it over the Jedi's abs. Jess hummed in contentment— _that's_ what she needed. Rey wrapped her arms around her omega and similarly put some fingers against the skin of Jess' back under the edge of her shirt. Since this put Jessika's neck right in front of the Jedi's face, Rey couldn't help but duck down slightly to nuzzle into the mating bite on her mate's neck. Jess shivered in Rey's arms and canted her head to give the alpha more access. Soon enough, Rey was alternately laving and nibbling at the bite, Jess making soft noises into the Jedi's shoulder.

When Dr. Kalonia finally found them and saw the state that they were in, she said in exasperation, "Ok, if you're still having sex every five minutes, why were you outside of your quarters and in the mess hall? I really hope you didn't have sex in there."

Both mates blinking, it took a few moments before Rey or Jess could remember where they were and why, but Jess was the first to recover, and said, "We're most definitely not having sex right now—we have too many clothes on still."

Kalonia studied them searchingly a few moments, then said, "Hmmm ... well, you might as well come in and sit down—I need you to tell me how much or little of the symptoms of mating heat or rut you still have so we can determine how far along you are." Kalonia ushered them into one of the small examination rooms and set them on the bed, raising an eyebrow when they both wrapped themselves around the other.

Pulling out her medical datapad and a stylus, she asked, "Alright, how often do you need skin-to-skin contact?"

"Um ... ten to twenty minutes maybe?" Jess answered uncertainly, then looked at Rey for confirmation, who nodded. Dr. Kalonia wrote that down.

"Time between bouts of sex? By that I mean, time between when you try to get up and do something else."

"Uh, six hours? When did we get up to eat breakfast?"

"1030 hours I think," Rey answered, looking at the clock on the wall.

Jess nodded. "Between that and now, then."

Kalonia raised her eyebrows. "Between 1030 hours and now you've been having sex the whole time?"

"Well, no, some of that time we were sleeping," Rey said, flushing slightly.

"Yeah, sleeping _inside_ me," Jess snickered, and then blushed when Kalonia looked at her.

The doctor didn't comment or make any sort of judging expression, just marked something down on her chart. "And is 1030 hours the first time you were able to get up since your mating heat-rut started?"

Jess scratched her head. "I think once about a day or so ago I got up to take a shower? Does that count? Rey came and joined me in the shower before I was done though."

"Hmm, no, I think we should probably consider today at roughly 1030 hours as the first time since mating start, and roughly now at 1720 hours as the second time. That's just under seven hours, so I recommend that you both eat very well this evening."

They ran through a few other questions, some of them more invasive than others, and then Dr. Kalonia tossed them some medical robes and ordered them to strip, stepping out of the examination room.

"But we just _got_ dressed," Jess snarked, although she still stripped her clothes off anyway. Rey's eyes lingered on Jess' body as she changed, and Jess winked and blew her a kiss. That wasn't quite enough for Rey, who stepped in to get a real kiss.

Kalonia knocked on the door once briefly and then stepped into the room again. "Hey, I thought I said no sex in the medical bay."

"Maybe you should think about that before you have two recently mated people get naked together."

"Well, I'm pretty sure you'd have disliked it more if I'd made you get naked in separate examination rooms."

Jess opened her mouth to protest, but found she had nothing to say. "Yeah okay, that's fair."

Kalonia had them go individually behind a curtain to examine them physically, making notes on any injuries sustained and whether said injuries were from sex—all of them were from sex—and number of mating bites. She examined Jess first, including a pelvic and vaginal exam. The doctor was fast and efficient, but by the time she was done, Jess was anxious and Rey was growling on the other side of the curtain, so Kalonia had Jess go back out to sit with her mate while she finished making her notes.

After letting them sit with each other for a few minutes to recover, Kalonia examined Rey. It was the same routine, except that after the pelvic and vaginal exam, she asked Rey to shift for her. Rey just sat there blinking in surprise, so Dr. Kalonia called Jess to come over. She had Jess sit on the examination table behind Rey, and then growl and bite her alpha—and Rey instantly shifted. Kalonia made a note on her pad and then examined Rey, turning the alpha's shaft this way and that, and asking if anything hurt at all during the examination.

Once that was done, Kalonia discarded her gloves and then told them both to get dressed—and with a brief glance at Rey, still fully shifted, she repeated the ban on sex in the medical bay. When she left this time, she kept the door slightly ajar as an extra measure against sex. Rey was actually glad the doc had done so, because now that Rey was completely erect, she probably would have tried to have sex back there—just seeing Jess' bare ass was giving her urgent needs to be inside her mate again.

Once they were fully dressed, Rey leaned over and said to Jess, "We're going to have to stop back by your quarters before we go to dinner."

Jess gave her mate a sultry smile, saying, "I guess we can be a little late to dinner."

Kalonia had to shoo them out of the medical bay when she checked on them afterwards and found them passionately kissing—and then sent a droid to follow them until they were back to their quarters to try and keep them from having sex in the hallway. Dr. Kalonia muttered something under her breath about mates always needing to fuck in the weirdest places.

====

By the time the two newly-mates finally made it to the mess hall, it was absolutely packed, and they were both of half a mind to take their trays outside to eat, but then Finn waved at them from a side table. Poe and some of his squad were at the table too, and they all waved amicably. Rey told Jess to go sit down with her friends and that Rey would go get them a tray—Rey had had enough food for both of them last time on a single tray, and if it wasn't then they could always go back for seconds. It wasn't like it would take long enough to trigger their mating separation anxiety. So Jess sat down and was joking around with Finn and Poe—who waggled his eyebrows roguishly every time anyone mentioned anything about Rey, or every time that Jess looked over at the dinner area to put her eyes on her mate—when the junior pilot from her squad, Ensign D'Lal, sidled up to their table.

Poe raised his eyebrows at the woman, as the ensign tried to obviously ingratiate herself on Jess, until Poe blurted out, "Hey Ensign, you know Jess has got a mate now, right?"

The junior pilot went bright red and then spluttered her way through an excuse that she had to leave. Poe shook his head while Jess raised an eyebrow at Poe.

"What?" Poe protested. "That alpha was bothering me."

"No, it's fine—she was starting to bother me too."

No sooner had Ensign D'Lal left, when Jess saw her commanding officer, Captain Smye, walking towards her table.

Jess groaned. "I'm not scheduled to be on patrol already, am I?" she asked rhetorically to the room at large.

The Captain walked up to the table and looked at Jess, sternly considering. Jess was sitting at the corner of the table, so he stood right beside her in the space between tables. "You haven't been showing up to your shifts, Lieutenant Commander Pava," he said, sounding like he was working up to giving Jess a stern rebuke.

"No, sir, I haven't. I was on medical leave."

"And yet here you are, eating dinner with your friends." Smye waved at the table to make a point.

"Yes, sir, Dr. Kalonia just told me to come to the mess hall to eat," Jess said, keeping her tone completely neutral. Smye kept leaning closer to her as he talked, Jess guessed this was because of the noise in the hall, but Jess really couldn't take anyone being in her personal space who wasn't her mate this soon after mating, and kept leaning further away from him.

"Look," the Captain said, his tone changing completely from stern to soft, leaning in even further, "you don't have to stay quarantine while you're in your heat—I can help you with that you know."

Captain Smye's voice made Jess' stomach turn, and the insinuation that she would need _his_ help made her angry. Jess had been leaning so far to keep away from him that she was now pressed up against the person sitting on the other side of her, Finn, and now there was nowhere else to lean to get away from Smye's advances. That, combined with everything else, made Jess snap and her instincts took over.

Growling in a low and deadly tone, Jess surged up aggressively from her seat, flinging the captain away from her. Everyone nearby instinctively ducked on hearing her growl, recognizing the sound as a mate feeling threatened or getting defensive. Even the people seated at the table scrunched down to make themselves seem small and unthreatening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting close to the end of this fic, maybe 2-3 chapters to go for what's already written, and then after that it'll be a bit of a dry spell until I finish writing this. I might even "end" this fic once I hit the end of what's already done, and then do a sequel work with the extra material later after writing more, just so this fic isn't left just hanging out here.
> 
> But at least I've got what I really wanted, which was these two getting together and having quality time with each other, seeing them interact as mates.


	14. Ready to rumble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alt chpt title: Tube 'o Rey

Rey heard the sound of her mate's growl and immediately took her hands off the tray she'd been pushing along the counter, spinning around to look. Seeing Jessika standing next to their table with everyone nearby ducking down, except for one soldier who was getting back up from the ground, Rey rushed into action. She darted around the people who had been standing at the food counter with her, and ran full tilt towards her mate, who was still growling and was glaring dangerously at the man who had just stood up.

Not bothering to go around a table that was in her way, Rey simply leaped over it, clearing the entire table and all the soldiers sitting at it in a single bound. Landing gracefully on the other side, the young Jedi transitioned smoothly into running again, until she slid to a stop next to her mate, scooping Jessika into her arms. The omega's growls instantly dropped several notches in threat level and aggression as soon as her mate reached her, but she didn't take her eyes off the other pilot—a captain, Rey saw—who was now staring hard at both Jessika and Rey. Before the Jedi-in-training could potentially go from comforting her mate to aggression, or before Jessika could act on her instinct to punch out this aggressor, another voice cut in.

"Captain Smye!"

The mess hall had been quiet before as everyone turned to watch the approaching fight, but now it became dead silent. General Organa stepped up and pointed a finger at the captain.

"My office. Now." She said sharply. The Captain bristled, and his eyes flickered back over towards Rey and Jess, still embracing each other, before he realized he needed to obey this command or he'd face punishment for insubordination. Without verbally acknowledging his orders, he stalked off towards the General's office.

Turning to the room at large, General Organa called out. "So, everyone can see Rey and Jess' behavior and recognize what it means, right? Apparently Captain Smye couldn't, so I'll just say it—these two are newly mated, and I don't want anyone to try and interfere with _any_ newly mated pairs. Am I making myself clear?"

The room responded with a 'yes, general'—not quite in unison, but good enough.

"Very good, now go back to your dinners," Leia said peremptorily, waving them all away.

Once most of the room had turned their attention back to their plates, she turned to Rey and Jess—who had finally stopped growling once Smye had stopped looking at her. "Are you both okay?" the General asked.

Rey nodded, but Jess' eyes flitted in the direction that Smye had gone.

"Oh, him? He's your commanding officer, isn't he?" Leia asked with a thoughtful look on her face. "Well, I don't think he's going to keep being your CO for very long."

"Yes, General," Jess responded, not really sure what Leia meant, but the General had never let her down before so Jess was inclined to trust her.

"But that wasn't what I was referring to—I was really asking how you're both doing with each other, as new mates. I understand Dr. Kalonia cleared you for some simple activities starting today."

Jess nodded. "Yes, ma'am, now we can come to the mess hall and eat, and we don't have to drink our meals." The Resistance pilot made a face, remembering all those protein shakes.

"Eh, it wasn't _that_ bad," Rey said. "I quite like some of those shakes."

Jess wrinkled her nose. "I mean, no, they're not _that_ bad, but there's a world of difference between something that is 'not bad' and actually good food."

Leia seemed amused by their conversation. "Well, it seems that you still need to eat some of that actually good food, so I'll let you to it. I expect we'll talk again soon—and preferably under better circumstances."

"Yes, General."

Once General Organa had left, they decided to both walk back over together to where Rey's tray of food was still sitting, then finished grabbing things they wanted and went back to the table. Everyone at the table scooted over to give them a little space, which Jess appreciated, after getting pressed so hard by that asshole. At first Jess was too interested in keeping her hands on Rey to eat—not in a sexual way, just needing to keep in physical contact with her mate as a way of calming herself down—so Rey began feeding Jess, alternating between giving her mate bites of food and eating some herself.

Their friends at the table teased them a bit and cooed over their cuddly newly-mates behavior, but Rey and Jess were too much focused on each other to actually notice it that much. Finn had lots of questions to ask Jess, and after she felt more relaxed she scooted over to sit by him so they could whisper back-and-forth in semi-privacy. Jess was pretty sure she already knew who Finn's mate was going to be, but until Finn started producing a scent and got his nose working properly, they'd just have to wait—no matter how much he and Poe stared dreamily at one another.

====

"Dr. Kalonia," Finn said urgently as soon as he walked into the medbay.

The doctor looked up immediately with some amount of concern, expecting some kind of major injury.

"I'd really like to know when I can be able to scent my mate," the former storm trooper said without preamble.

====

The next few days continued pretty much the same for Jess and Rey, gradually increasing the time they could spend apart without getting twitchy. By the third day after they'd emerged from their mating, Jess was back on patrol duties, and true to General Organa's promise, Captain Smye had been reassigned—now the second-in-command was acting commanding officer over their squad. Smye had always been a bit of an ass, and Jess generally got on pretty well with Davi, the new acting CO who was another omega, so it was a pretty good change in her book.

The first time Jess had reported for patrol duty after the reassignment, Davi had blinked at her for a couple moments, but after that had been perfectly professional with Jess, or even openly friendly when they weren't on duty. The only problem that first day, as Jess saw it, was that she was sweating and achy by the time her first patrol shift ended from the need to get back to her mate. Commander Davi had taken one look at Jess as she'd climbed out of her X-wing and ordered Pava to her quarters immediately, barking something that sounded like orders into her comms—but by then Jess was already running across the hangar bay and didn't hear what her commanding officer was saying.

Jess had burst into her quarters, panting, only moments before Rey also burst in, and they had instantly latched onto each other, with only a brief concession of space to remove their clothes so they could have as much skin contact as possible. They didn't even have sex—that would have required allowing some space to form between them, which neither could stomach right then. After possibly a half an hour, they were able to pull away enough that they could kiss, and when they finally left Jess' quarters to go eat, Jess or Rey had maintained a hand pressed to the other's body in some way during the entire meal.

A week after their mating, the two newly-mates were finally cleared by medical as being able to spend more than a week out of the other's company, and Jess was cleared back to full duty—she'd been on partial mating-recovery duty previously, since she couldn't go on any long missions. Of course, that meant that Jess was immediately assigned to a week-long caravan escort mission.

Rey was understandably upset, but they had two rest days before the mission start, and spent a lot of that time in Jess' quarters in each others' company before the omega pilot had to leave. The hours before the start of her mission, Jess also had the bright idea to have her mate thoroughly scent-mark a scarf, which she then put in a sealed container—so the Resistance pilot could sniff it every few days without the smell fading too much. She did the same thing to a scarf for Rey, but the alpha would also have access to Jess' quarters whenever she wanted, which would still smell strongly of her mate even weeks later.

At first on the mission, Jess was fine—which she attributed to their hours and hours of sex and cuddles just prior to mission start—but after three days, she started to feel unaccountably cranky, and so she started making herself take regular sniffs from her Tube 'o Rey as she called it (the sealed container she used was roughly tube-shaped). This seemed to help, but there remained a slight background level of unease—slight enough that Jess was mostly able to ignore it, so it didn't pose much of a problem. Her acting CO Davi noticed though, and told her to track her symptoms so she could relay them to Dr. Kalonia when they got back.

Luckily, they were basically at the end of the mission by then, and as soon as Jess' X-wing touched the hangar floor there was a familiar Jedi-in-training standing just outside her cockpit, waiting eagerly. The pilot wasted no time in popping off her helmet and opening the cockpit, and at Rey's urging she didn't wait for the ladder and simply jumped down into her mate's arms, trusting the Jedi to break her fall. Catch her Rey did, and Jess was dimly aware of the snarky comments and cooing from her squadmates, but the omega didn't really care right then when Rey was _right there_ with her lips on Jess. No one tried to stop them when the two broke apart to run back to the pilot's quarters.

Rey stopped her mate midway on the trip back to her quarters though, and Jess was confused until the alpha said her quarters had been upgraded to a double. She showed Jess the way to their new shared room in the mated officer quarters section—it was much bigger than the omega had thought it would be, but the most important thing right now was that they had a much bigger bed, which Jess promptly pushed her mate onto. When they'd finished making love, Jess took a shower and then had Rey give her a tour of their new quarters, ending up on their new couch for snuggles until they needed to go eat something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter that I have fully written out up to this point, and I don't know how long it'll take before I get to finish the next one, so don't expect the same multiple-times-per-week update schedule that I've been sticking to. In fact, it might even be a couple weeks before I can finish it. Just a heads up!


	15. Cuddle overload

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of miscarriage, abortion, and pregnancy in this chapter.

A few days after returning from their mission, Commander Davi noticed that Rey had been getting increasingly protective of Jess and hanging around the pilot whenever she wasn't in the air. At first Davi had written it off as just residual mating separation anxiety after Jess had returned from her first long mission, but it seemed to be getting worse, not better like she would have expected. Then the commander came across the Jedi growling as she paced around Jess, the pilot under her X-wing working on repairs—and saw that the Jedi alpha was keeping the assigned mechanic, a male beta, at about a twenty-meter distance.

Since this was clearly abnormal mate behavior, Davi ordered the two to report to medical. Jess had gone first to their quarters to wash the oil and dirt off, and Rey had spent the entire time being unusually attentive, offering to wash her or holding up a towel for her or rubbing her shoulders and hands as they walked. Rey didn't seem to be all that horny, which was surprising to Jess, because usually when Rey stuck really close to her mate like this, the Jedi really wanted to have sex.

They got to medical and Rey went back to hovering protectively around Jess, growling occasionally in warning at anyone who got too near, until Jess took matters into her own hands and made Rey come sit down in her lap. Rey still was growling and kneading gently at Jess' body, until Jess herself started to feel her arousal increasing. Dr. Kalonia finally finished with her other patient and walked over to the seated pair, before taking one long look at Rey's behavior and furrowing her brow.

"Well, that's interesting," the doctor said, mostly to herself. "And the General might not be so pleased with this."

"What?" Jess asked with some measure of concern, although she wasn't really capable of getting all that anxious with Rey nuzzling and kissing her cheek softly while also gently massaging the pilot's shoulders.

"I guess we'd better run some tests and make sure."

A few tests and about thirty minutes later, Dr. Kalonia ushered them into one of the small examination rooms.

"More tests, doc?" Jess asked, looking around the room to see if she could guess what tests they'd be doing based on what was laid out in the room. The room was pretty empty though, so she couldn't really tell.

Kalonia just made them both sit down, and then sat down herself on her wheeled doctor's stool. "So," she said, flipping through charts on her medical datapad, "it appears that your implanted contraceptive was not quite as effective as we'd thought."

"What?" Jess said, blinking and trying to process this information. Rey wrapped an arm protectively around her and made a soft soothing noise. "But ... it's an implant, doctor. I've never heard of one failing before."

"Yes, well, I ran some other tests and compared them with your immediately pre- and post-heat hormone levels, and it appears that the administered suppressant interacted with the contraceptive in unexpected ways and potentially rendered it inert, at least for a time. It's either that, or a strong mating heat-rut combined with those two things caused the interaction. We've never really had a case where someone went into mating so soon after the application of a suppressant—usually there is at least a twenty-four hour period after it wears off before couples mate, and often much longer than that."

Jess made a faint sound of surprise. In response Rey nuzzled into her cheek and pet her mate's hair comfortingly, obviously sensing Jess' internal distress, even if the omega gave little outward sign of it.

"In any case, it appears that you are about two weeks pregnant, and Rey is reacting to your change in scent," the doctor continued. She paused for a moment, and then asked, gently, "Would you like me to go over the options available to you?"

Rey seemed to understand what was implied instantly and growled threateningly, although she was wrapped around Jess on the examination table and so couldn't actually do anything but growl. Jess' hands clamped down on her mate's arms to hold her there, and she turned her head to nuzzle and kiss up Rey's neck and jaw lovingly until the alpha had calmed down enough to stop growling.

"Um," Jess said eventually. "I'm not really sure that I _have_ any options? I mean, I'm a pilot in a military organization involved in open war with another enemy military organization—that's hardly the time to be getting pregnant."

Dr. Kalonia pursed her lips. "Well, historically, child-bearing people have been fighting in wars for ages, and sometimes they get pregnant and/or mate during that war. In pre-space-flight times, there were even records of famous generals who were in battle, stopped to give birth, and then got right back up on their animal mount and went back to battle." Kalonia then cleared her throat, saying, "Needless to say, I don't exactly think such an extreme example is either healthy or safe, so I wouldn't recommend it, but as a pilot your duties would actually not be as impacted by pregnancy as say a ground trooper, should you choose to bear children."

With a very brief glance at the now-calmed Rey, the doctor continued. "And if you chose not to continue pregnancy at this time, we have a wide variety of drug-based methods to stop a pregnancy that would work up until the first trimester on an omega, and then other methods that would be used after that point. We also have various drugs that would temporarily impede your implanted contraceptive, should you choose to try again later."

Rey made some small noises of discontent during the explanation, but managed to hold herself in check.

"Thank you, doctor," Jess said to Kalonia, though keeping an eye on her mate. "I think this is something we'll both have to talk about and then let you know."

"That's to be expected," Dr. Kalonia said, and then reached over to a side table to pick up a datachip. "I've stored the details of each procedure on this 'chip so you can both look them over and discuss it as you see fit."

Jess accepted the datachip with a 'thank you', and then the doctor sent them off out of the medbay. They walked back to their new shared quarters, and immediately on entering the room Rey started nuzzling into her mate's shoulder and neck, slowly herding her across the room with tender kisses until she had the omega pilot on her lap on the couch.

"Babe, Rey, baby, wait," the Resistance pilot protested, trying to get a word in between her mate's determined snuggles. "I know you're excited about this, but maybe we should talk about it?" Rey made a disgruntled whining noise, but she slowed down her cuddling. "Okay, good, thank you. So ... I take it you're interested in having children? Or is this all-" Jess made a vague waving motion at her mate's body, "-just alpha instincts?"

Rey huffed and stopped her kisses while she appeared to consider this. Finally she was able to get past her previous growly state to form words. "I ... think so? Yes? I'd like to have a family and kids, but I've never really been around children before. On Jakku children usually didn't survive as scavvers, and other non-scavver families generally stayed away from us—and for good reason, scavvers were pretty savage. I don't think I've ever seen a child under the age of about ten up close. Even if I don't have any experience though, a family is something I've always wanted to have after ... after they left me on Jakku."

Now it was Jess' turn to caress her mate soothingly. "Alright, so kids in general is a yes, but ... do you want to have kids right now? Or do you want to plan for it, maybe prepare a little first?"

Rey gave her mate a shrewd look. "I guess by the way you phrased that question that you want to wait."

Jess blushed, which caused Rey to instinctively kiss her mate a few times on the cheek and neck, quickly reverting back to growling lowly and nuzzling. "Okay yeah, you caught me, I would prefer to wait and plan. If you're set on having a child now though, I'm not completely against that idea. It would just probably be more difficult."

It took a little while for the Jedi to stop herself from nuzzling and kissing her mate, but eventually she pulled back. "Alright, I can understand how it might be better to plan for a specific time, and know that we're ready before we try to have children," Rey said, and then promptly the alpha started nosing gently into her mate's shoulder.

The omega sighed. "I can see that we're probably not going to be able to have a serious discussion right now—and it's not like I don't absolutely enjoy all this attention you've been giving me ..." Jess trailed off.

With a look of delight at the implied encouragement, Rey practically dove back into her mate, nuzzling and cuddling and kneading with abandon. Jess giggled as the alpha pulled down the extra blankets over the back of the sofa and began wrapping them around her mate, rumbling and crooning. Soon the Resistance pilot found herself the center of a little love nest, Rey purring into her ear as she massaged Jess' back and neck.

"I guess we don't have to end the pregnancy _right_ away, maybe we can wait a little while," Jess conceded with an extremely pleased sigh, and Rey smiled in smug satisfaction.

====

Their friends noticed the change in Rey's behavior when at the next mealtime, the Jedi instantly hopped up to fetch whatever Jess said she was about to go get, and made the omega stay seated at the table while Rey went to go pick up their tray. Finn in particular had lots of questions for Jess while she was waiting at the table.

"I don't know what to tell you, Finn—I have no idea if this is just Rey being Rey, or if this is normal mated alpha behavior," Jess said, throwing a smile over to her mate, who kept her eyes on the seated omega more than she did on the food she was picking up. "How are things going with your ... situation? Any news on when you'll get a scent?"

Finn sighed heavily. "Still a couple more weeks, Dr. Kalonia said, and that's just her estimate. It could be even later than that."

"Or it could be sooner," Jess replied, trying to wipe that dejected look off her friend's face. Poe was nodding enthusiastically from across the table, backing up Jess' statement. She noticed that Dameron had been increasingly touchy-feely with the former storm trooper lately, and wondered if that might be from the beginnings of Finn's scent starting—although it could totally just be Poe trying to make Finn feel better about waiting. Jess was pretty sure that the only reason that Dameron was even sitting that far away from Finn right now was just because Rey had been extra protective when they'd arrived and Finn had had questions to ask Jess.

Thinking of overprotective alphas seemed to summon Jess', because the Jedi chose that moment to come back to the table, growling at some of the alphas on a nearby table who had been staring at Jess as she walked up.

"Rey," Jess said, and the alpha stopped growling and dropped herself down onto the bench beside her mate, setting the tray and drink down.

The Jedi then ran her hands all over Jess, nuzzling into the omega's neck again. "Rey," Jess repeated, sighing when the overprotective alpha grumbled and then just held her mate in a hug, the Jedi burying her face in the omega's shoulder. The Resistance pilot raised an eyebrow at the stubborn expression on Rey's face, before she lifted the mug of caf to her lips and took a sip.

Jess made a face as she swallowed it down. "Decaf?" she asked in surprise, setting the mug back down, turning to peer questioningly at her mate.

Rey just returned her gaze, half-sheepish and half-mulish.

"Oh no," Jess said chuckling. "No no no—we are _not_ cutting my caffeine just for a temporary thing." When Rey rumbled at her unhappily, Jess simply stood up, "Don't worry, I can get it."

The Jedi was up off the bench in a flash, darting around people to get over to the drinks station. Jess sighed, shaking her head with a wry grin, and sat back down.

Finn blinked at her, perplexed, asking, "What was that all about?"

"You don't even want to know."

====

If Jess thought Rey was cuddly _while_ she was pregnant, it was nothing compared to the alpha _afterwards_. Everything seemed normal when the two mates talked and decided to go through with the abortion, and nothing out of the ordinary happened when Jess took the meds that would induce it. But the first morning after a full 24 hours had passed, when Rey woke up and tried to sniff Jess' neck like she usually did, suddenly it seemed like the alpha couldn't get enough snuggling or kissing or physical contact, much worse than before. The Jedi washed Jess in the shower, massaged or kneaded her body whenever they were less than a foot away from each other regardless of who was around, and even helped her get dressed—which of course included lots of caressing.

"Ah yes, it's an instinctual behavior for alphas whose mates have miscarried," Dr. Kalonia said when Jess asked her about it. They both paused to watch as Rey switched from kneading Jess' thigh to nosing her mate's ear and running her fingers through the omega's hair, lightly scratching her scalp.

"I mean, I _like_ it, but ... it just seems a bit much," Jess said, unable to be all that worried about it under her mate's ministrations—the only reason they'd even ended up at medical was because the omega had idly mentioned having a question to ask the doctor, and then suddenly the Jedi was urging her off the couch and out the door.

"Well, it'll probably last a bit longer, maybe a week or two total, so I'd say enjoy it while you can."

"Yes, doctor," Jess said on a contented exhale, feeling like jello on the exam table under her mate's hands. Rey ended up having to almost carry the omega back to their quarters because the pilot's legs turned out to be wobbly when she tried to stand up again. When they got back to their room, the Jedi laid Jess down on their huge new bed and proceeded to give her a full-body moisturization and massage. The omega drifted off into blissful sleep by the second leg.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure how well this chapter worked, but it was an idea I had that I wanted to play with.
> 
> Just about at the end now, but I want to write one more chapter before I "end" this story. Unlike this last chapter, which was half-written ahead of time, the next section is completely unwritten and I have no idea what's going to happen in it or when I'll finish it up.


End file.
